Derrick McFarland, Managing Director Keystone Lintels is BMBI’s Expert for Steel Lintels.

The Q4 steel lintel market stats – as with the Q3 figures – are slightly distorted with two price increases in the year. Adjusting for December’s disappointing performance, Q4 2017 continued the steady trend of previous quarters at around 5% growth. Average daily sales for October and November continued at a strong rate before dropping back in December and maintained the fairly flat trend from March to November. Although only early into 2018, the market is maintaining a steady pace.

The NHBC recently reported that new homes registered in 2017 increased 6% to 160,606 while new home completions rose 4% to 147,278 compared to 2016. The housebuilding sector is expected to continue its modest growth in 2018. However the availability of materials, mortgages and labour combined with rising costs risk planned growth. I previously flagged up concerns about product quality and compliance (lack of compliance) to regulations as house building growth continues. So, I’m delighted to read that the ‘NHBC will continue to work with the industry to help raise standards of new homes.’

October enquiries were very strong, boosting the overall Q4 total. This is good news coming after the drop in enquiries in Q3, and good news for growth if these enquiries turn into orders. Specification of correctly certified products is becoming more important for housebuilders to ensure compliance with building regulations and SAP ratings. Both merchants and manufacturers need to be aware of the importance of specification to the finished solution, and the risks of altering specifications.

Builders increasingly want more clarity on various areas to support their final decision when placing orders: manufacturer product availability, product performance, lead times, local merchant stockists and service charters for example.

In a competitive market, customer service and product knowledge still give merchants a hard-to-beat competitive edge, so it’s vital that sales and technical teams are fully available to support merchants’ teams in keeping that edge.