Time to go continental?

"To most steelwork contractors, Eurocodes are a long-term issue. Something to think about another day. Short-term needs to win the next order crowd out our time for thinking about things like the steel design code EC3."

The words of Richard Barrett, managing director of Barrett Steel Buildings, sum up the attitudes of many in the British constructional steelwork industry towards the steel design code EC3, the drafting of which has been going on since the 1970s.

But those attitudes may soon have to change - because later this year, the new code will finally come into effect.

"The codes are settled and written," says Barrett, who also chairs the technical management board of the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) - the body responsible for drafting the codes. "And in theory, we could see them being rolled out on projects later this year."

Barrett however, does not believe steelwork contractors in this country have anything to fear from the new codes. Far from it.

"The more far-sighted firms will see this as an opportunity rather than a problem. The new codes will mean for the first time that there are consistent standards for steelwork design across Europe - and importantly, they are going to be much closer to existing British standards than the more academic continental equivalents.

"This, in theory, should open up the continental markets much more for UK steel contractors, not to mention consulting engineers, architects, and indeed, most of the supply chain."

At present, the market share for steel on the continent is relatively small compared to the UK [see table]. The British Constructional Steelwork Assocation (BCSA) estimates that if the market share of steel in EU countries climbed to UK levels, the market potential is £3bn. And Barrett describes that as "a modest estimate".

According to Barrett, the new codes are more positive towards UK steelwork contractors. It's because of the amount of British input that has gone into the drafting process in Brussels.

"The Brits have been the most active out of all the EU countries which have been involved in the ECCS," he explains. "We've put in a lot of effort to try and ensure that the new codes will be fairly straightforward to use - in line with British rather than most European standards."

In contrast to Britain, standards for steel design on the continent have in the past been influenced mainly by academia. Design guides, particularly in Germany, tend to be weighty textbooks, concerned more with theory than practice.

This has resulted in a steelwork industry that is far less efficient and economical than Britain's, generally using 10% to 20% more material in steel structures. As a result, steel has a relatively small market share in most EU countries compared to Britain.



Setting standards

One would imagine that other European countries would be delighted to move across to a leaner standard, closer to the one currently used in Britain. Not so, apparently. Indeed much of the EC3 drafting process has been a battle between the pragmatists from steelwork industries in countries such as Britain and Holland and the dyed-in-the-wool academics from Germany and France.

"But that battle has largely been won," says Roger Pope, BCSA technical consultant, who has worked with Barrett on the ECCS. "The new code is slightly more complicated than the British standards, and we will have slightly heavier buildings - but that is because of regulations that will apply to all structures, including concrete, so it shouldn't mean steel being any less competitive in relative terms."

Also, the design guides, which are being formatted over the next couple of years, will be "modelled on the best around - the British and the Dutch", Barrett says.

What is more significant to Pope, is that at last there is a consistent standard that can be applied across Europe.

"Some countries like Portugal have never even had a code," he explains. "Now that there are consistent standards, it should open up an export market for British steelwork contractors."

Barrett believes this will be encouraged by clients. "Many international clients believe British buildings are of a higher standard than those on the continent, and are going to start to want to see them built in Europe," he says. "Take distribution companies, they want the massive floorspace that wide-spanning steel structures can offer, but concrete, which involves lots of pillars, can't."

Another reason why the continental market could open up for steel is what Pope calls the "atrium factor".

"It's no coincidence," he argues, "that the countries where steel has the highest market share are also those that are most prosperous. And clients in these countries are increasingly going for light, airy, atrium-entranced buildings that have a bit of a 'wow' factor - and which steel is much better placed to deliver."

By contrast, he adds, concrete is much more associated with the old, drab, communist-influenced monoliths of the cold war era.

The chance of steel increasing its market share in Europe is also, of course, good news for steel manufacturers. Barrett sees one trend emerging quite quickly. "The more visionary British steel contractors will acquire a steel plant in eastern Europe, and then bid for work in say, Germany, knowing that their labour and therefore fabrication costs will be quite low.

"We're already seeing evidence of this, for example, Atlas Ward has bought a plant in the Ukraine."

Among clients, public sector projects will be the first which have to use the new codes, as they form part of European procurement law.

But Barrett believes certain areas of the steel construction industry will also be keen to start using them fairly early. "The larger, pan-European consulting engineers will see greater efficiency in using one code across the firm, particularly as it is coming in eventually anyway," he says, "so they are likely to go across very quickly.

"Also, from an insurance point of view, there is pressure on engineers to work to the latest code."

But for much of the industry, it may be a few years before the impact of the new codes is felt. The codes have been written in English, but they are being translated and formatted locally. This forms part of a two-year transitional phase during which each EU member country has to determine how it will set the codes according to the parameters of its own existing national standards. In the UK, this will be decided by the Building Regulations Division of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, in consultation with the British Standards Institute. This phase ends in 2005.

There follows a five-year changeover period, during which the Eurocodes will run in parallel with existing national standards, though some countries may withdraw theirs at once. But Britain, Barrett suspects, will wait till the bitter end before scrapping its own. "It's just the way we seem to do things over here," he shrugs. n