Steel Rods and Construction Steel in Nepal: Weight, Price Moves and Project Credit
Steel is sold by weight, priced by a moving market and bought on credit by builders whose projects pay in stages. Here is how to keep weight, price and credit under control.
gamitrack team · · 6 min read
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Construction steel looks simple: a few diameters of TMT bar, some binding wire, perhaps angles and channels. The difficulty is in how it is sold. Steel is counted in pieces and bundles but priced and invoiced by weight. The price moves with the market, sometimes within weeks. And the biggest buyers, builders and contractors, pay as their projects receive money, which can be months after the steel is in the columns. For a steel rod maker, dealer or hardware trader in Nepal, margins are decided by three controls: weight, price and project credit. This guide takes each in turn and ends with one project followed from quote to final payment.
Control 1: weight
Pieces, bundles and kilograms
| Unit | Who uses it | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Piece (one rod) | Small buyers, site staff counting | Piece weight differs by diameter and mill |
| Bundle | Yard and dispatch | Bundle weight varies; counting bundles hides shortfall |
| Kilogram or tonne | Price, invoice, mill purchase | The only unit that matches the money |
Decide which unit is your stock unit and use it everywhere. Most traders keep stock and price by weight, and use pieces only as a helper at the yard.
In gamitrack, each diameter and grade is a SKU, such as 8 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, 16 mm and above, with weight in kg. Quantities support decimals, so 2.375 tonnes is recorded as it is. Orders carry weight, which helps plan truck loads and compare what was ordered with what left the yard.
Yard stock you can trust
The yard and any depots are branches. Every receipt from the mill, sale, transfer and return is an append-only stock movement, so the history explains every change. Set low-stock alerts on the fast diameters before the building season, and count physical stock at regular intervals. A difference between book and physical weight should be investigated quickly; it can come from scale differences, rusting stock written off without a record, or plain loss.
Control 2: price
Steel prices follow raw material costs and the market. A quote given three weeks ago may be below today's cost.
A simple price discipline:
- Keep one default price list per diameter and grade.
- When the market moves, update the list the same day, so every new order picks up the new price.
- Give negotiated project prices as party overrides, not as notes on a paper quote.
- Decide how long a quote stays valid, and say so to the customer.
- Review orders booked below the list price each month.
The order price is taken from the party override first, then the price list for the party's type, such as contractor or hardware shop, then the default. VAT at 13% applies on taxable lines, and invoices follow the IRD format, numbered per fiscal year with Bikram Sambat dates. Check the current IRD rules at ird.gov.np if you are unsure.
Control 3: project credit
Three kinds of buyer
| Buyer | How they buy | How they pay | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual house builder | One house, in stages: foundation, columns, slabs | From savings or loan instalments | Stage gaps; sudden pauses |
| Contractor | Several sites, frequent orders | When the client or project pays them | Total exposure across sites |
| Hardware shop or sub-dealer | Smaller lots for walk-in customers | Running account | Overdue days and stock turns |
The most common mistake is treating a contractor as one account when he is really running five projects with five payment patterns. If one project stalls, the whole balance looks bad, and you cannot tell which part is safe.
Setting it up
In gamitrack, add each large project as its own party, separate from the contractor's other sites. Give each party its own payment due days, counted from dispatch. Payments by cash, cheque, bank, eSewa, Khalti or Fonepay are allocated oldest-first, so the statement shows clearly which deliveries are still unpaid. Advances paid before delivery are recorded as advances and applied to the next invoices. The aging report shows each party's overdue amount by age.
A weekly collection plan lists who should pay this week and compares planned against actual. Many traders link collections to project stages: when a builder finishes a slab, the money for that slab's steel should follow.
Site delivery
Steel goes to building sites that may be at the end of a narrow lane, with no clear address and a site supervisor who changes every week. Proof matters.
- Assign a delivery person to each dispatch. The driver's tab shows the amount due, the site location and directions.
- At the site, the driver records proof of delivery with GPS, a photo of the unloaded steel and the receiver's name.
- A delivery marked far from the site location is flagged for review.
- If the site pays on delivery, the driver records the payment after delivery.
Dispatch is all-or-nothing. If the order is 3 tonnes of mixed diameters and one diameter is short, the order waits or is changed, rather than half of it leaving with no record of the balance.
Field sales: builders, engineers and hardware shops
Steel sales officers visit hardware shops, contractors' offices and active sites. Build routes in gamitrack with ordered stops. The officer starts the day in the app, and each visit is checked against the stop's geofence with a photo. Visits outside the geofence, too short or without a photo are flagged for the manager. A visit to a new site is a good moment to note the stage of construction for the next order.
If you sell through dealers, they can place primary orders in the dealer app, officers can book secondary orders from hardware shops for the dealer to fulfil, and each dealer submits a monthly stock report. Targets can be set in kg or amount: monthly for officers, quarterly or annual for dealers.
One project from quote to final payment (hypothetical)
Suppose a contractor is building a three-storey house and asks for a quote.
- Quote. The officer creates the contractor as a party with an override price per kg for the main diameters, valid for an agreed period.
- Foundation. The first order is booked. It is dispatched complete, delivered to site with a photo and receiver name, and invoiced. The contractor pays part in advance, recorded as an advance.
- Columns and first slab. Two more orders follow. Meanwhile the market price rises; the default list is updated, but the contractor's override still applies as agreed.
- Pause. The client delays a payment and the project stops. Aging shows the contractor's balance moving into the older columns. The weekly collection plan puts him at the top of the list.
- Restart and final payment. Work restarts, the remaining orders are delivered, and payments are allocated oldest-first until the statement is clear.
At every step the price, the weight delivered and the balance are on record. The steps and figures are illustrative.
Q&A for owners
Should I update prices daily? Update when the market price actually changes. The point is that the change happens in one place, the price list, rather than in each salesperson's head.
How do I stop selling to a contractor who is already overdue? Check aging before booking a large order. Many traders agree a limit by days overdue with their team and stick to it.
What about steel bought back or returned from sites? Record a return with a reason, approve it into the yard branch with a credit note, and check the weight before accepting it.
Related reading: cement dealer management, pipes and sanitaryware distribution and the building materials industry page.
If you want to see how weight-based stock and project credit look on your own yard, see the plans on our pricing page or contact us.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep steel stock in kg instead of pieces?
Yes. Products carry weights in kg and quantities support decimals, so you can record stock and sales in the unit you trade and compare dispatched weight with ordered weight.
What happens to open orders when the steel price changes?
New orders pick up the updated price list. Orders already booked keep the price they were booked at, so decide your policy on old quotes and tell customers clearly.
Can I track each building project separately?
Add each project or builder as its own party, with its own price override, payment due days and statement. Aging then shows each project's overdue amount.
Can site deliveries be proven?
Yes. The delivery person sees the amount due, location and directions, and records proof of delivery with GPS, a photo and the receiver's name. Deliveries far from the site location are flagged.
Put this playbook to work
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