“Across the board, metal construction projects increased in number and size from 2020 to 2021.“
Published on March 1, the MCN 41st Annual Contractor Survey sees a robust market environment in the metal construction industry, comparable to the overall construction market. Metal builders, roofers, wall panel contractors and light-gauge steel contractors all report that 2021 was better than 2020 and they anticipate 2022 being even better. According to survey respondents, MCN reports that metal building construction increased 12.9% in 2021, seeing a metal roofing 9.3% increase, metal wall panels 2.5% increase and light-gauge steel framing up 9.5% for exteriors and 3% for interiors.
MCN highlighted that survey respondents this year again reported increases in both overall contracting revenue and metal construction revenue. In last year’s survey, respondents said their overall contracting revenue averaged $8,322,776 nationally and on metal projects (metal building systems, roofing, wall panels and light-gauge steel framing) the 2020 total sales number was $5,327,987. Both of those were significantly higher than the previous year, and respondents reported another big leap in 2021 with total contracting revenue at $11,746,063 and metal project revenue at $6,987,318.
“Part of the reason for the increase is from actual increases in revenue, though such large jumps are hard to balance against the more modest increases reported on the number of projects completed,” commented MCN. Other mitigating factors included a change in the survey takers with more larger firms participating this year as well. Historically, the revenue numbers are closer to the ones MCN has seen in previous surveys.
The Report is broken down in the following categories: General Statistics, Metal Buildings, Metal Roofing, Metal Wall Panels, and Light-Gauge Steel Framing.
General Statistics: Every year, the South is over represented in the respondents to our contractor survey. Last year, they made up 30.4% of survey takers, and this year they accounted for 31.4%. Year after year, this region is the biggest, and year after year, the East is the smallest.
Metal Buildings: After reporting a decline in the size of metal buildings from 2019 to 2020 (-4.8%), MCN found the growth in building size is back on track in 2021. Compared to 2020, the size of metal buildings their respondents reported increased 12.9%. And their respondents also reported they were far more likely to do metal building projects this year than the previous two years.
Metal Roofing: In their last year’s survey last year, MCN saw a large increase in respondents who said they did metal roofing projects than previous years with 48% saying they did that type of project in 2020. In this year’s survey, MCN saw another jump this year with 55.8% of our respondents reporting they did metal roofing work in 2020.
Metal Wall Panels: Half of the respondents this year were involved in metal wall panel construction, representing an increase from just over 40% last year; 83.7% reported they did a commercial project in 202 and nearly 30% said they did a metal wall panel project on a retail building in 2021.
Light-Gauge Steel Framing: A far greater percentage of respondents to the survey indicated they had completed light-gauge metal exterior framing projects in 2021 (50%) as compared to those who responded last year and reported on numbers for 2020 (20.9%). The size of the projects also increased from 2020 to 2021 for both exterior and interior light-gauge framing. Exterior project size grew 9.5% from 9,350 square feet in 2020 to 10,235 square feet in 2021. Interior projects increased in size 3% year over year from 10,739 square feet in 2020 to 11,059 square feet.
To review the full report, click HERE.
Metal Construction News is the original news magazine of the metal construction industry and is the premier source for news, products and strategies. Devoted to educating building systems contractors, general contractors, suppliers, manufacturers and more, each issue features project overviews, field techniques, and technical issues dealing with the metal construction industry. MCN is the sponsoring publication & official show guide for METALCON. Registration is now OPEN for METALCON 2022, scheduled for October 12 – 14 in Indianapolis, Indiana.