SAISC SUBSIDIARIES: SASFA

• 0.67 million m ² of bulk insulation( typically glasswool),

• 0.9 million m ² of internal lining or gypsum board, and

• 0.4 million m ² of vapour permeable membrane used in external walls.

LSF building market split, 2015

■ Schools hospitals

■ Office and commercial

■ Residential

of 1.55 million m ² was produced, some 30 % higher than the previous year. Stats SA figures for buildings completed in 2014 / 15( excluding low cost housing) shows that light steel roof trusses captured 20 % market share during the period.

Based on industry feedback, complete buildings( wall panels with roof structures), covering a total floor area in excess of 400 000m ² were built using LSF in South Africa during 2015, marginally down on the previous year’ s figure.

This is largely in line with the official national building statistics supplied by Stats SA, which indicate no growth in total floor area of new buildings completed during 2014 / 15. It confirms the acceptance of LSFB by architects, engineers, builders and clients, notwithstanding the best efforts of the clay brick industry to bring the proven attributes of LSFB into question.

The total LSF market( local and export, trusses and complete buildings) is forecast by the manufacturers to grow by more than 10 % during 2016, compared with 2015. The SASFA manufacturing members report good demand for middle and upper income housing, schools and classrooms, and roofing structures for low cost housing projects.

LSFB is increasingly being used for external( and internal) walling of multi-storey office and commercial buildings, such as the 20 000m ² external cladding of the Mall of Africa, currently being built in Midrand.

The decision by government to in future increasingly use innovative building technologies, such as LSFB, for new schools, clinics and student accommodation, has added additional growth potential.

In view of all the above, the forecast 10 % growth in the use of LSFB in 2016 may in time prove to be conservative.

But LSFB does not only consist of steel. Based on average ratios of wall area to floor area, LSF has in 2015 resulted in a demand for

• 0.4 million m ² of external cladding( typically fibre cement board),

FEBRUARY – MARCH

February 29 – 5 March SASFA Training Course for Building Contractors of LSF Buildings( Gauteng)

APRIL

SEPTEMBER 15 Steel Awards NOVEMBER

3 SAISC AGM, Country Club Johannesburg 7 POLASA AGM, Country Club Johannesburg

OTHER EVENTS / COURSES PLANNED FOR 2016:

International Speaker Steel Academy Courses for young engineers

ENQUIRIES:

EVENTS: marle @ saisc. co. za COURSES: tiana @ saisc. co. za SASFA: john. barnard @ saol. com POLASA: kobus @ saisc. co. za SAMCRA: dennis @ saisc. co. za

26 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 1 2016