Chennai steel scaffolding industry piggybacks on booming housing realty

With the housing construction industry booming in Chennai, the steel scaffolding industry is making rapid strides in spite of the rise in steel prices.

According to industry sources, the rise in steel prices only had a small impact as the construction of residential apartments has been on a rise. An industry source pointed out the reason being that the industry in Chennai was dominated by small-scale players.

Manufacture of steel scaffolds in this market being largely dominated by the small scale sector, supplies for smaller orders are readily available from the existing stock.

At present, there are about 10 to 12 organised small scale enterprises specialised in manufacturing scaffolds in the city.

Gopidas, proprietor of Geo Emmanuel Engineering, said that though the rise in steel prices has affected the steel scaffolding industry, the small scale players are managing to pass on the price increase to the real estate builders.

Using steel for scaffolding is advantageous as compared to the conventional wood. Steel scaffolds are safer and provide better quality compared to wooden scaffolds.

Longer life span and strength of the steel scaffolds are the other factors for its growing popularity in the construction industry.

It is estimated that around 65 per cent of the construction industry uses steel scaffolds. The steel scaffold industry is estimated to be growing at 20 per cent annually.

Small scale manufacturers of steel scaffolds provide them on rental basis also. Gopidas said that the scaffold rental was also growing as builders who do not have large warehousing capacity and find purchasing steel scaffolds expensive take them on rent.

"Though the initial cost of purchasing wooden scaffolds is lower due to its faster degradation and its inflexibility unlike steel scaffolds, real estate developers find the latter to be cheaper in the long run," Gopidas said.

P Vijaikumar, general manager of Jain Housing and Construction Limited, said that large property developers who are into construction of multi-storey apartments definitely use steel scaffolds. With the construction of apartments on an uptrend, demand for steel scaffolds is growing at a rapid pace.

There has been significant activity on the residential real estate front with the prevailing soft interest rate on housing loans.

"Steel scaffolds are expensive compared to wooden scaffolds. Therefore there are still many small property builders who use the conventional wooden scaffold," he added.