FlowMarket
Where to find steel structure fabricators: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the structure — type, tonnage, execution class, connection design responsibility, corrosion protection and erection scope — and the agent matches you with certified fabricators and steelwork contractors, then requests quotes, certification and programme so you can compare them in one place.
Sourcing structural steelwork
Structural steel is bought by the tonne and delivered as a set of obligations. The tonnage sets a rough price; the execution class, the connection design responsibility, the corrosion protection specification and the erection scope decide what you actually pay, and they are the four things enquiries most often leave out.
Describe the structure and its context: what it carries, the span and height, the environment it stands in, the programme, and how it gets erected on your site. A fabricator who understands the erection constraint quotes a different and more realistic job than one working from a tonnage figure.
Execution class is the gate, not a detail
Structural steelwork placed on the EU market is CE marked with a declaration of performance, and the fabricator must be certified to EN 1090 for the execution class the design requires. EXC2 covers most ordinary buildings; higher classes bring more demanding welding qualification, inspection and traceability, and not every fabricator holds them.
So establish the execution class from the design before you go out to enquiry, and state it. Comparing a quote from a fabricator certified to EXC2 with one from a fabricator certified to EXC3 is comparing two different products, and discovering the mismatch after award is expensive in a way that shows up as programme rather than cost.
Connection design is the hidden scope
Whether the connections are designed by the project engineer or by the fabricator is the single most common source of scope disputes in steelwork. Both arrangements work; what does not work is each party assuming the other is doing it, which surfaces when fabrication should already have started.
Say explicitly who designs the connections, who checks them, and who is responsible for the fabrication drawings and their approval. Then agree the approval turnaround in the programme, because drawing approval sitting on a desk is one of the most reliable ways for a steel package to lose three weeks.
Corrosion protection drives more cost than people expect
- Environment category — the corrosivity of the location and the required durability set the system; internal dry steel and a coastal structure are not comparable.
- Galvanising — long life and low maintenance, with constraints on member size, venting holes and distortion to design for.
- Paint systems — flexible on colour and site touch-up, with surface preparation grade doing most of the work.
- Duplex systems — galvanising plus paint for aggressive environments or appearance, at a cost step.
- Fire protection — intumescent coating or boarding is a separate specification with its own thickness requirements and applicator approvals.
Specify the system against the environment and required durability rather than by name, and check what is applied in the shop and what is left for site. Site-applied protection under weather pressure is where quality problems and programme delays concentrate.
Tolerances, fit and the survey nobody did
Steel is made to fabrication tolerances and installed against a building that has its own. Where steelwork meets existing structure, concrete or another trade, the interface is where the delays happen, and the usual cause is a dimension taken from a drawing rather than from the building.
For anything connecting to existing work, ask for a site survey before fabrication and agree who pays for it. It is a small cost against a set of beams that arrive fifteen millimetres out and have to go back, and it is the item most often deleted from a quote to make the number look better.
Erection, access and the programme
Erection is often close to half the value of a steel package and is where site conditions dominate. Crane access and standing, delivery sequence, working at height, permits, and whether the site can accept steel in the order the fabricator wants to make it all shape the price and the programme.
Ask for fabrication and erection to be priced separately even if you buy them together, so you can see what each is costing. And ask how the fabricator's shop is loaded — capacity, not price, is what determines whether your steel arrives when the programme needs it.
How the AI agent matches suppliers
The agent reads your requirement rather than your keywords. It searches the FlowMarket network and connected industrial directories together, scores every candidate on how well it answers what you described — structure type and tonnage class, EN 1090 execution class, connection design and detailing capability, corrosion protection scope, erection capability, region and capacity — and drops anything that does not clear the bar. Each match comes back with a plain-language reason, so a fabrication shop and a full design-and-erect contractor never look the same.