I want to purchase steel for construction purpose, What aspects should I keep in mind while deciding that which company should I contact for this?
I'd keep in mind whether your potential supplier is close enough to still give you good service, and provide delivery when you need it. I'd want to contact as many local companies as possible, in order to get competitive bids. Then, I'd pick the lowest cost bids that I felt would still provide the service I needed. Most decisions of this sort, in the end, are based on price.
It has been a few years since I was in the business but I have found that some steel from some countries can be quite different from the standards steel made in the US. For instance, one in 5 of my Indian made cast iron fittings would break when tightening it down. This never happened with US fittings. Even though I could take it back and get a refund, the increased price of US made materials was worth the savings in time and trouble. On a job in Columbia, the 3 inch angle iron came to us in 4 different sizes, all around three inches but not quite. This is not to say that all foreign metal is bad. One RD project I headed up we found a foreign bearing steel to be far superior to anything we could get in the states.
