Singapore includes KS Standards in construction guidelines

KS standards have been included in Singapore's Class 1 Building and Construction guidelines (BC1). As a result, it is expected that steel exports to Singapore will increase by approximately 20,000 tons annually.

The Korea Iron & Steel Organization's Structural Steel Center announced on Wednesday that KS standards have been registered and completed for 33 product items, including hot-rolled steel for welded structures, hot-rolled sections for building structures, carbon steel tubes for building structures, cold-rolled steel sheets, hot-dip zinc-coated steel sheets and hot-rolled steel bars for building structures, within Singapore's recent architectural design standards.

As a result, the association projected that South Korean steel exports to Singapore would increase by around 20%. The steel exports to Singapore last year amounted to 118,000 tons.

Previously, only standards from the UK, European Union, United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China were registered in BC1.

As KS standards from South Korea were not registered, it was difficult to quickly procure materials for entry into the Singapore construction market as testing was required for each delivery. Additionally, it was necessary to design with a reduced strength of 20% to meet the requirements.

However, with the recent registration of KS standards within BC1, it is now possible to freely design and apply KS steel materials in the Singapore market.

The original strength of the KS steel can be fully utilized, and it is now possible to provide quality assurance through mill sheet submission alone, which is expected to lead to an expansion of exports to Singapore, according to the Korea Iron & Steel Association.

"Singapore is an attractive market with a history of large-scale construction booms, including projects such as Marina Bay Sands and the development of Sentosa Island," an official of the association said. "With future plans for projects such as the expansion of Singapore Changi Airport and port redevelopment, there are expectations for increased exports of construction steel."

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com