Ranbuild innovative steel building solutions

Vo Minh Nhut

BlueScope Steel Vietnam recently introduced its long-standing light weight, pre-engineered building solution Ranbuild™ to Vietnam’s market, considered to be a vigorous move in fighting for a share in the steel market in Vietnam and South East Asia.

VIR’s Duong Kieu talks to BlueScope Buildings Vietnam president Vo Minh Nhut about the company’s specific strategies for this new solution in Vietnam.

What are the advantages of Ranbuild™ compared to other common pre-engineered building solutions in Vietnam?

Ranbuild™ is cold roll-formed light-weight, pre-engineered building solution that offers a “one-stop shop” solution package to meet customer’ specific building requirements and reduces costs of foundations. Ranbuild™ solutions can be applied for building carports, workshops, storehouses, factories, aircraft hangars, sport centres and others.

These building applications are suitable for the agricultural, aviation, commercial and industrial fields. Ranbuild™ also provides maximum performance in durability and lower maintenance cost many times to compare with common pre-engineered building by using premium quality Zinc High Ten Z275-G450 for the frame, ZINCALUME® Steel and Clean COLORBOND® steel for cladding from BlueScope Steel.

Ranbuild™ is also considered as one-stop solution centre based on RanBuild Design System (RDS), providing shop drawings and quotations within 30 minutes after getting a customer’s requirement. Meanwhile, it usually takes us one week at least to provide design and quotation when using traditional solutions.

With in-house expertise and experience for full package of the services from design to technical service to construction and after sales service, customers can know exactly what is the dimension of their buildings, how it looks like and actual prices without hidden costs. Its faster construction with fully roll-formed components permits faster project completion.

Also, we will have a nationwide dealership channel to make sure that Ranbuild™ is everywhere with huge variety of designs and size to fit well with different areas and weather conditions in Vietnam. All Ranbuild™ buildings are backed by a material warranty from BlueScope Steel.

As Ranbuild™ is a new name in the market, what is the development potential for the brand name in the future?

The launching of Ranbuild™ in South East Asia region including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam is a part of BlueScope Steel’s long-term strategy already called Bamboo. Bamboo symbolises the popularity, strength, durability, and union of the whole region. We currently have factories in most countries in the region, but Laos and Cambodia. The two countries will import Ranbuild™ steel applications from Vietnam and Thailand-based factories.

In Vietnam, project developers/owners usually have to find designers and many kinds of contractors separately by themselves. But through Ranbuild™, we now offer a whole-package, full house of the services from design to technical services, construction and after sales services.

That is why Ranbuild™ is expected to be a future trend for Vietnamese developers and customers as it is more economical and time-saving. Also, the recent fast development of the Vietnamese economy, real estate and manufacturing areas is another good reason for us to enter the country. Vietnamese developers/customers now have higher demands on professional and qualified pre-engineered steel building solutions while domestically-made solutions are also priced equally with those of Ranbuild™.

For example, prices of high-performance building materials such as Clean COLORBOND® pre-painted steel and ZINCALUME® zinc aluminum alloy-coated steel now fluctuate between $40-$50 per square metre depending on the building’s location. Also, Vietnam annually demands some 200,000 tonnes of roofing materials, so our plan to annually provide about 2,000 tonnes in the first year and twice in the coming years is just to meet a small portion of that demand.

How will Ranbuild™ pre-engineered building steel be produced and distributed in Vietnam?

Ranbuild™ just focuses on small- and medium-sized buildings and we have signed dealership contracts with 16 distributors with locations ranging from the Highlands, South East and Mekong Delta areas. We target to have at least one distributor of Ranbuild™ per province and are expected to extend its presence nationwide in the next 18 months.

Besides training the distributors on products and installation processes, we also help them professionally to use RDS to help maximise the advantages of Ranbuild™ solutions. All of our distributors are in construction businesses and have to meet our requirements on public liability and worker compensation insurances.