Federal obligations in fabricated structural metal manufacturing (NAICS 332312)

Structural fabricators: $828.0 million on 48,387 actions

Federal construction and facilities programs buy fabricated structural metal from manufacturers classified in 332312. Tagged obligations sum to $828,005,393.46. That is not a tonnage of steel and not a count of buildings erected. Physical quantities are not in the packet facts.

Forty-eight thousand three hundred eighty-seven awards is a high-count fabricated-metal pattern, in the same family as electrical wholesale and fasteners though the product is structural members rather than catalog screws. $828,005,393.46 divided by 48,387 is about $17,100 per action. That average fits many small and mid-size shop orders plus some larger lots.

Why award count is high in structural metal

Shops fill many discrete orders for beams, stairs, platforms, and miscellaneous structural fabrications. Each delivery order can be a USAspending action. 48,387 is not 48,387 unique fabricators. Filter the industry hub if the question is large bridge-steel lots rather than the long tail of $828,005,393.46.

Other metal container manufacturing (332439) is boxes and residual containers, not building frames. Keep 332312 and 332439 separate despite both sitting in fabricated metal.

Fabricator versus general contractor

A structural-steel fabricator should be 332312. A general contractor erecting a building uses construction NAICS. Design-build primes can be tagged to construction even when the steel is the costly input. The $828,005,393.46 follows the 332312 manufacturing tag on 48,387 actions as recorded.

Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. Highway and building grants to states will usually miss this mill rollup even when they fund steel. Program pages cover those streams.

A complete citation of this industry is $828,005,393.46 in USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 332312, fabricated structural metal manufacturing, on 48,387 awards. Anything less—dropping the NAICS, dropping the word obligations, or dropping the contract-only universe—overstates what the extract contains. The packet facts do not include a fiscal year, so this guide does not invent one. Live tables on the industry hub can move when USAspending posts modifications; the harvested pair remains $828,005,393.46 and 48,387.

Obligations on shop lots

Fabrication orders obligate when placed and pay on delivery and inspection. Summing 48,387 such rows into $828,005,393.46 still produces an obligation total, not an outlay total. Shop-error returns and cancellations de-obligate.

Classification errors are expected at the margin. Vendors that straddle general contractors, metal containers, and fastener manufacturing may land in 332312 on some actions and in a neighbor on others. Other metal container manufacturing (332439) is boxes; 332312 is structural members. The public-record stance is to keep $828,005,393.46 attached to 332312 as tagged, then aggregate the 48,387 rows first, then sample large lots versus miscellaneous fabrications. Re-tagging the extract by hand is out of scope for this overlay.

Working a high-count hub

Use aggregates first on the fabricated structural metal industry page, then sample. This overlay states source (USAspending.gov), unit (obligations), dollars ($828,005,393.46), and count (48,387). The all-industries directory links container manufacturing without merging totals.

Structural fabricators are not construction primes

Award count interprets the buying pattern. 48,387 actions producing $828,005,393.46 is tens of thousands of structural-shop orders, with about $17,100 per action as the simple average. That average hides mix: modifications, options, and delivery orders all increment count. 48,387 is not a count of unique companies and not a count of physical units. Use the hub amount sort to see whether a few large rows plus a long tail make up most of the tagged total.

Outlays remain a separate USAspending concept. An agency can obligate $828,005,393.46 across 48,387 tagged fabricated structural metal manufacturing actions and pay on a different calendar. De-obligations after cancellations reduce the obligation ledger; they do not rewrite the fact that this NAICS has been a large tagged category in the harvest. Assistance without NAICS still sits outside even when the real-world activity looks similar. Program pages answer the grant question; this page answers the tagged-contract question.

Internal links on this file point only to the fabricated structural metal manufacturing industry page and the all-industries directory. Those are the packet hrefs. Neighboring industry codes mentioned in prose are classification context only. Source note, copied from the packet: NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. The overlay’s job is to state $828,005,393.46, 48,387, the obligation unit, and the boundary around general contractors, metal containers, and fastener manufacturing.

Questions

How much federal contracting is coded to fabricated structural metal?

NAICS 332312 shows $828,005,393.46 in obligations on 48,387 USAspending contract awards. That is structural-metal manufacturing as tagged, not general contracting and not metal containers. The unit is obligations, not outlays or tons. Quote it as USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 332312, not as cash outlays. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grants remain outside the 48,387-award extract behind $828,005,393.46.

Why are there more than 48,000 awards?

Structural shops fill many discrete orders. 48,387 actions against $828,005,393.46 averages about $17,100. Delivery orders add rows. The industry hub shows the size mix. Other metal container manufacturing (332439) is boxes; 332312 is structural members. Keep $828,005,393.46 attached to 332312 as tagged on 48,387 actions; do not merge neighbor codes into the same unlabeled cell.

Does this include metal shipping containers?

No. Other metal container manufacturing is NAICS 332439. This page’s $828,005,393.46 is fabricated structural metal on 48,387 tagged awards. Open 332439 separately. That pattern is tens of thousands of structural-shop orders, with about $17,100 per action as the simple average of $828,005,393.46 over 48,387 awards. Aggregate the 48,387 rows first, then sample large lots versus miscellaneous fabrications.

Are highway steel grants included?

Usually not. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so they fall outside this contract extract. Use program pages for grants. This industry guide covers tagged contracts only: $828,005,393.46 obligated on 48,387 fabricated structural metal manufacturing awards in USAspending. Outlays are a different field; assistance without NAICS is a different award type.