TOWARDS A SPARKLING FUTURE
Greetings of the Diwali season to you and your family. This is traditionally a time to open a new chapter of accounting, to improve our office and living spaces. It is also a time to take a look towards the future – its opportunities and challenges.
At Icon Steel, we are always working to establish a new standard. Our mission is to improve our products and process, and deliver higher value to our customers, build even better relationships with all our associates, professional network, and customers.
What might the new look like? What will be the shape of construction over the coming 15 years? Urbanisation is a huge reality – many of the technological, medical, and lifestyle amenities are mainly accessible in cities. Many more cities – megacities, smart cities, satellite townships will come up. Since there are so many aspects of energy, waste management, water, and safety – there will be more and more automation for overseeing the management of all these aspects. Thus, smart buildings will be the new norm.
Today, from being only material suppliers, we have to think about partnering the structural engineers and architects, because the smart buildings are quite complex and there is a long-term implication of how it can be eco-friendly, which portions can be reused, and of lowering the structure’s yearly electricity consumption.
As a steel producer, we are required to track the upcoming trends and gauge how we can support the construction professionals as they tackle challenges like reducing the impact on climate, carbon footprint, health-related certification, space utilisation, fire protection, and also overall project management. The buildings of tomorrow will show more sensitivity to the environment, use more prefab, waste less energy, procure material from nearby to reduce the ecological cost, use a modern construction process, and plan for future material recycling of the building too. In view of the unexpected switches that happen in the economy, like it has taken place during the pandemic, we should be able to modify a residential building into a commercial building or vice versa without requiring extensive remodeling or reconstruction. When the designing is done accordingly, the pattern of steel usage and the type of steel products will change. The structural engineers are likely to specify parameters for corrosion and fire resistance, and a supplier’s capacity to control the TMT bar’s microstructure, and work with Thermex processes, and implement automated manufacturing will prove to be a competitive edge. How does the global scenario appear today? Construction steel continues to be a key component of the infrastructure sector which is vital for developing facilities for health, defence, education and agriculture. The pace of economic growth and the pressures to develop have pushed the demand for steel in mainland Asia much faster than in western Europe. Various countries are at different stages of recovery from the pandemic which also caused some of the large construction contracts to be renegotiated due to disruption. Some of the larger construction companies have gone international – it gives them access to wider opportunity, more materials and resources, and diversifies their operational risk. It is a way to get away from domestic competition, and such companies also enter into other infrastructure-related lines of business. Steel producers with production expertise can collaborate with such large construction companies to develop and offer engineered solutions to projects. I am certain we can be optimistic that some never-before opportunities are taking shape, and we can respond dynamically. Again, best wishes of the festive season to you all.













