How to compare steel structure prices effectively?

When you have several quotations for steel structure warehouses, steel structure workshops, or prefabricated steel buildings from different suppliers, how do you compare them to find the most suitable solution for your budget?

Some buyers are very professional and know how to compare the steel quality and quantity of materials. While some buyers may not be that familiar with or the first time buying this product for the first time, so they don’t know how to compare, they may just compare the steel building prices directly. But comparing only prices without comparing materials is meaningless.

Compare Steel Structure Building Price steps

1)Check the steel specification, steel standard, and steel weight.

The steel frame includes column, beam, tie rod, all relative bracing, wall purlin, roof purlin, and stairs, if for more than 1-floor steel building.

2)Check the wall and roof material and quantity.

Wall and roof material can be made by: (0.3~0.8mm)corrugated steel sheet, (50~150mm) sandwich panel. Sandwich panels are divided into 4 types: EPS, Rock wool, glass wool, and PU insulation.

3)Check the window and door material and quantity.

Usually, two doors will offer aluminum windows and PVC windows with single and double glazed.

Door for warehouse/workshop/storage: roll-up door (Electric or manual) and big sliding door.

Door for people to get into the entrance (single or double leaf): steel door, wooden door, PVC door, security door.

4)Check the with or without gutter and downpipe and their material.

The gutter and downpipe are essential components of steel structure roofing rainwater removal systems. The gutter refers to the trough or channel along the edge of a roof that collects and directs water away from the steel building. It can be made by galvanized steel sheet, color bone steel sheet, or Stainless steel sheet.

5)Check the steel fabrication cost.

The steel frame finished is by painting or hot-dip galvanized which can make the price very different.

Last year, an Indonesian client sent us a drawing of a steel structure warehouse and asked us to make an urgent quotation. And we found the drawing showed every detail material inside, which was very helpful because that could speed up our quotation calculation.

When we sent him the offer, he said he got a price from another supplier and their quote was nearly half cheaper than our quote. We are shocked because that is a huge difference, and it is just a small warehouse project the total steel weight was only 20 tons. But the other supplier's quotation was only 12 tons.

I asked my engineer to double-check again at once, it turned out that our steel weight was no problem. We have further communication on this issue with customers and guide them to make reasonable comparisons.

The client told us that the other supplier did not list the size and weight of each component material separately in their steel quotation as we did. Instead, they only provide the total steel weight. This made the customer can’t accurately compare which components were more or less. Thus, they prefer our quotation making method and present it to their client. They finally placed an order with us, and we have maintained a close cooperative relationship ever since.

During these years, we met many many clients, and no matter what type of buyer comes to us, we will serve them attentively. In order to provide suitable solutions to our customers, we will analyze what they are most concerned about, Price? Quality? Service or Brand? Then We will provide corresponding solutions and recommendations based on the customer's needs and concerns.

1.If the customer's main concern is price, it means they will place an order if the price is right. When discussing with this type of customer, we will continuously optimize the solution until the price is close to the customer's budget. This optimization is done by modifying the materials without affecting the functionality and ensuring the safety of the steel structure. For example, changing the material grade from Q355 to Q235; and replacing insulated roofing or wall panels with single-layer corrugated steel sheet tiles, this not only saves shipping costs but also material costs; The high fire rating of the roofing or wall panels can be changed to a lower fire-rating material; Changing the hot-dip galvanized surface of the steel structure to painting can also greatly reduce costs. Replacing double-glazed windows with single-glazed windows, switching from solid wood doors to steel doors, etc. We can select materials that meet the customer's budget based on their target price.

 

2.If the customer’s main concern is the quality, they will place the order only if the quality meets the requirements. we will ensure that the steel frame meets standards, and we use high-quality wall and roof materials and strictly control the production process(cutting, welding, Sandblasting, and painting) to ensure that the product meets the customer's requirements.

3.If the steel building project prices are not much different and quality is almost the same, the clients will choose the company with good service. It is important to have good communication skills and professional knowledge of steel structures, because it can be able to solve problems raised by customers in time and remove customer’s reservations.

4. Some clients request the materials with the brand, Like the steel frame raw materials need to use Baosteel, Ansteel Masteel, etc. The steel sheet roll for the wall and roof needs to use HuaGuan and Bosige. All of these are famous brands in China.

We are committed to providing our customers with cost-effective steel structure products. However, price and quality often go hand in hand. This is what we often say: "You get what you pay for."