This year, our list of top metal builders shows a steady industry, with the largest contractors and erectors reporting considerable increase in the average tonnage and square footage of the metal buildings they constructed between 2023 and 2024.
Again this year, we separated the list of 20 top erectors from 100 top contractors. We do this so we do not count work on the same building twice—once for the contractor furnishing the metal building system and again for the erector putting up the steel.
This does cause complications, however, because some companies furnish and erect but are contracted only to erect a building, making them both contractors and erectors. We identify those companies as contractors rather than separate those numbers in the same entity.
The two lists make comparing trends such as building size or market share changes over the years difficult. However, to alleviate this, we identified the 100 largest companies regardless of whether they are contractors or erectors and showed how their averages compare to previous years.
Overview
The average tonnage reported by metal building contractors and erectors both saw significant increases from 2023 to 2024, particularly for the former, with a 44 percent jump last year. Contractors experienced a 26 percent increase in square footage year-over-year, whereas erectors reported a similar jump of 24 percent. The tonnage for the 100 largest contractors also jumped by an impressive 38 percent.
Among the 100 most prominent builders, whether contractors or erectors, the average tonnage jumped by 42 percent in 2024, while square footage spiked by
37 percent.
Contractors List
Average Tonnage 2024: 2,394 tons
Average Tonnage 2023: 1,742 tons
Percent Increase: 38%
Average Square Footage 2024: 493,040 sf
Average Square Footage 2023: 407,839 sf
Percent Increase: 26%
Erectors List
Average Tonnage 2024: 5,909 tons
Average Tonnage 2023: 4,096 tons
Percent Increase: 44%
Average Square Footage 2024: 902,588 sf
Average Square Footage 2023: 849,108 sf
Percent Increase: 24%
Top 100 of Contractors and Erectors Combined
Average Tonnage 2024: 3,501 tons
Average Tonnage 2023: 2,455 tons
Percent Increase: 42%
Average Square Footage 2024: 729,403 sf
Average Square Footage 2023: 531,537 sf
Percent Increase: 37%
Market share
One key insight from monitoring the largest metal building contractors and erectors is whether the industry is experiencing consolidation. We merged the lists to pinpoint the 100 largest entities, irrespective of their business type. We then analyzed the market share of the top 10 contractors and erectors compared to the next 80. This year, their combined market share fell sharply to 56 percent from last year’s 69 percent. This marks a departure from the red trendline on the chart over the past decade through 2023 which had illustrated a gradual increase in market share.
Due to a change in our methodology three years ago, where we started producing separate lists for contractors and erectors, we isolated just the contractors for comparison with previous years. After a significant increase last year to a 70.3 percent market share for the top 10 contractors—likely influenced by the exclusion of erectors from the combined list—this year’s survey revealed a massive decrease to 55.6 percent, marking a 14.7 percent year-over-year drop. Since we began tracking in 2011, this represents the lowest market share held by the 10 largest contractors since 2021.
The data presented in the charts show that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a notable decrease in tonnage purchased and the square footage installed by metal building contractors. Following a significant high in 2018—the largest in over a decade—the industry saw a downturn, reducing to 1,742 in 2023, the lowest in almost a decade. However, that figure jumped nearly 40 percent last year to 2,394 tons, almost near the high in 2018. Additionally, the average square footage handled by contractors rebounded to 493,040 in 2024 from 407,839 the previous year, representing the highest since 2020 but still below the peak years of 2015 to 2019.
The combined square footage data for the 100 largest contractors and erectors showed a significant increase in 2024 over 2023, jumping by nearly 200,000 sf purchased per company, reversing course from the dramatic decrease from 2022 to 2023. When compared to 2014, the average amount of square footage purchased almost doubled from 401,024 a decade ago.
2025 Top Metal Builders Rankings
Top contractors by square footage
Top erectors by square footage