Establishment of reliable relative price predictions for high-strength steel members

In recent years, significant production improvements have been observed in the field of steel structures allowing for a constant increase in the yield strength and consequently for a reduction in the weight of structures. However, considering the required production techniques for high-strength steels, which are sometimes more demanding in terms of energy as well as more demanding in terms of alloy content, the manufacturing cost generally increases with the yield strength. Accordingly, designers and engineers are sometimes reluctant to consider higher steel grades as they do not know in which cases their use presents an economic benefit. Evaluating reliable relative prices for higher grades is seen as a necessity to realise a prospective study and prove their economic benefit but, looking to the literature, only a few publications address this topic. Thus, this article aims to establish relative price-strength relationships for different section typologies to help practitioners in choosing cost-effective steel grades for their applications. These investigations are based on previously available producer price lists to establish relative price intervals for existing and future emerging steel grades. The results of this article demonstrate the base price dependency and the key features which govern the relative prices and thus the economic benefit of such grades.