Structural Steel is Made in America

If you’re planning a building project, one of the early decisions to be made is choosing materials for the structure. Whether it’s a commercial building or a residential community, structural steel is an ideal choice for your project. Did you know structural steel is made in America and it supports American workers, as well as local businesses and the overall local economy?

Structural steel in the U.S. is the product of American workers. Across the United States, there are over 2,300 fabricators, and many of them are family-owned businesses. For every 45 tons of steel that are used in a project in the U.S., there’s another American job created. When you consider that there are currently 7.2 million tons used each year, those projects result in 160,000 jobs, with workers handling over 8,000 building projects across the country and working in more than a dozen mills to produce a variety of structural shapes and plates.

Structural steel is a sustainable choice. Structural steel is a recycled material that is locally-sourced, made from steel scrap collected in the United States. An average of over 90 percent of domestic structural steel comes from recycled content. In addition, at the end of its life, 98 percent of American structural steel is recycled into products to be used in a new steel project. For example, an office building five stories high and framed with structural steel uses 500 tons of American steel, which represents 122 recycled appliances, 79 tons of industrial scrap, 360 automobiles and 65 tons of curbside recycling.

The United States structural steel industry is equipped to handle demand. The American structural steel industry can produce nine million tons of structural steel every year. In 2015, there were 7.2 million tons used in buildings and other projects across the country, and the existing number of manufacturers can meet domestic demand.

If you’re still not convinced that structural steel is the ideal choice for your building project, we would love an opportunity to talk with you about other reasons to choose steel: design flexibility, cost and building capacity. Bring in your plans and let’s talk about the benefits that structural steel offers your project.

Midland Steel is committed to the highest quality work, and we also have the experience and technology to keep your project on-schedule and avoid delays related to errors or the use of a separate fabricator and erector. Give us a call and let’s talk about your project. We look forward to hearing from you.