As we move into 2025, Australia’s construction industry faces both opportunity and challenge. With the nation's five-year Major Public Infrastructure Pipeline amounting to $213 billion (Infrastructure Australia, Dec 2024), ensuring the quality, traceability, and compliance of materials, particularly steel, has never been more important.

The steel supply challenge

While major transport infrastructure investment is set to decline by $32 billion, demand for utilities and building infrastructure is increasing by $14 billion (Infrastructure Australia, Dec 2024). This shift highlights the need for quality, certified steel in a changing construction landscape. With material costs remaining elevated, having increased 4.3% in the past year and standing 30% higher than three years ago, and with steel forming the backbone of major projects, the importance of certification in ensuring that delays or "redo" costs associated with the use of steel not meeting certification specifications remains important.

ACRS’ role in ensuring quality

Independent third-party certification plays a vital role in ensuring that steel used in major infrastructure projects meets strict Australian Standards. With significant investments in housing stock, Olympic-related infrastructure, utilities, and renewables, certification reduces the risks associated with substandard uncertified materials. By verifying compliance at every stage, ACRS certification provides confidence to developers, contractors, and government agencies, ensuring that projects are completed smoothly and efficiently.

Productivity and compliance go hand in hand

As Infrastructure Australia stated in December, the construction sector continues to face stagnant productivity, exacerbated by workforce challenges and inefficiencies. Certification can help play a role mitigating these risks by ensuring that steel meets compliance from the outset, reducing inefficiencies associated with inadequate and non-independent certification and the potential for delays, rework and safety issues.

As Australia’s infrastructure future unfolds, ACRS-certified steel is an essential component for project success, providing the certainty and assurance needed in an evolving and high-cost construction environment.