In this article, TowerXchange explore how to select the right tower and component manufacturer to meet your needs, balancing a number of factors including the price and quality of steel, the cost and quality of engineering, and the lead times for delivery. We speak to Kimberly Morrison from Valmont, who have a unique depth and breadth of experience in supplying components to reinforce and upgrade the capacity of towers for multiple tenants.
TowerXchange: Where does Valmont Structures and Site Pro 1 fit in the telecom tower ecosystem?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
Valmont is a US$3.9bn company with over 90 manufacturing facilities in 23 countries offering 27 brands.
Our parent company Valmont Industries was incorporated in 1946. Valmont diversified from manufacturing steel pipes for irrigation to manufacturing lighting, utility and communications structures.
Valmont Structures is a division that manufactures finished telecom towers, while Valmont Site Pro 1 (SP1) is a division of Valmont Structures focusing on the design, manufacture and distribution of a comprehensive portfolio of over 1,400 components for the modification of towers. SP1 produces just about anything that hangs on the tower or the grounding around the tower - everything but the enclosures and fencing. SP1 also offers private labeling of tower components.
TowerXchange: Are steel towers a commodity?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
Valmont works with the customer so that each site is designed to meet the exact loading requirements and wind speed conditions in the area - we’re so far from the mass production environment. The relationship between manufacturer and customer is key.
We don’t subscribe to a philosophy of installing 200 identical towers then modifying them to meet local requirements after installation - our designs are customised for each site.
TowerXchange: What is Valmont’s footprint in international markets?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
The telecom division of Valmont has fully owned factories in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Finland, India, Italy, Morocco, Australia, The Philippines, The Netherlands, Poland, Estonia and multiple facilities in China.
For readers in Africa, we’re most likely to ship from China, India or Morocco. Manufacture and transit time depends on which factory we use and on scheduling. After receipt of order, manufacturing time takes on average 4-6 weeks at most Valmont facilities.
TowerXchange: Talk us through the manufacture, import and inland logistics processes that take a tower from your factory to a client’s site - where does the delivery cost and delivery time come from?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
Once the tower has been manufactured and galvanised, the next step is packing. Major manufacturers like Valmont have in-house capabilities for loading towers or monopoles into containers, which can take as little as one day, while other manufacturers subcontract containerisation with addition of cost and time.
The next step is to transit the container to the shipping point for export or inland freight, with the time taken dependent on the distance from factory to shipping point.
Once shipped, customs processes are very specific to each country and the shipping company must understand the necessary paperwork and have it completed in advance, otherwise you’re going to incur significant delays. Clearing customs can take two days to two weeks, depending on the country.
Then inland logistics from port to site again depends mainly on distance and the efficacy of your shipping company.
How much of this delivery cycle is Valmont’s responsibility is defined in the terms of the order. Some the customers take ownership from our factory gate, some take it from the shipping port, some pass on responsibility for clearing customs to us - it’s up to them.
TowerXchange: What are the tradeoffs when selecting a steelwork partner - why are some towers cheaper than others?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
A lot of the value is in the engineering behind the quote. Customers need to examine the engineering to ensure they’re comparing apples with apples.
Quality processes vary widely from shop to shop. Valmont uses only trained engineers and our welders are all certified. The supply chain of the material used including quality checks on the grade of steel is another way Valmont works within the quality process. Quality and work procedures are used and followed so the process is the same each time. These are all things a local steelwork shop may or may not have.
There can also be a wide range of interpretation of specifications in an RFQ. For example, if the RFQ doesn’t confirm the frequency of microwave dishes, they could be anything from 2-11GHz, which significantly affects the size of the dish and the structures required to prevent twisting and swaying, requiring a more robust and more costly design.
Most buyers will look at the basics, but it’s only when you drill to the level of specific equipment to be mounted that you’ve taken into account everything that must be encompassed into design - and that affects price accordingly.
The other main inputs into price are the cost of steel, the cost of labour, the cost of power to the plant, and the proximity of the plant to the destination.
if one manufacturer is using 20,000lbs of steel but another 30,000lbs, you can see there’s a difference in quality
A good shorthand comparison of steel quality and design quality is to ask the weight of the tower - if one manufacturer is using 20,000lbs of steel but another 30,000lbs, you can see there’s a difference in quality.
Steel can be purchased in varying grades of strength. There are international standards for these steel grades, Valmont generally follows ASTM. A quality manufacturer will only use steel that has certifications that it meets the specified grade and maintains traceability of this steel throughout the manufacturing process.
TowerXchange: For readers not as familiar with the engineering side of the business, please introduce us to the international quality standards applicable to telecom towers.
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
Most RFQs refer to specific design coding and international standards.
TIA-222 revG is very similar to International Building Code standards, which for example define the requirements to make an elevated platform safe for someone to stand on. TIA-222 applies those standards to the telecom industry and to tower design and manufacturing specifically.
As well as tower designs, tower companies will often mandate the use of specific tower design software - usually RISA-3D, which we use at Valmont.
TowerXchange: The capex required to upgrade a single tenant tower to accommodate multiple tenants is a critical part of towercos’ business models - what is involved in such upgrades? What components are required?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
The process of upgrading a single tenant tower typically works something like this; a carrier asks their towerco for space to hang their equipment on a tower that currently has capacity only for the anchor tenant, so the towerco commissions an A&E firm to do a tower analysis and to determine what needs to be done to enable the tower to handle the requested additional loading. The A&E firm passes that requirement to SP1 and we quote on provision of the components necessary to make that happen; typically a combination of tie-rods (leg strengthening), brackets and bracing. The A&E firm quotes that to the towerco, which quotes the carrier a lease rate, which may or may not include a contribution toward the cost of the structural upgrade. If the carrier consents, the upgrade is can be completed pretty quickly.
we’ve upgraded thousands of towers for American Tower, Crown Castle, SBA et cetera. We understand the parts needed for tower strengthening, so we’ve come up with standardised components for the tower modification work required by co-location
Valmont have been serving the tower industry since the inception of the co-location model 20 years ago, and we’ve upgraded thousands of towers for American Tower, Crown Castle, SBA et cetera. We understand the parts needed for tower strengthening, so we’ve come up with standardised components for the tower modification work required by co-location.
TowerXchange: What are the alternatives if a tower cannot be upgraded?
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
I’m sure you can imagine the varying quality and age of towers you have in emerging markets, from recently installed, robust structures to weak towers barely able to support existing equipment. With such structures, a ‘drop and swap’ may be more feasible than undertaking substantial reinforcement. But when dropping a tower you have to turn off active components, and that means an interruption in revenue for the operator.
Swapping a tower can also be problematic if there have been changes in zoning laws, which in many cases are less liberal than when these towers were first installed - many towers were grandfathered in under old zoning laws and therefore cannot be swapped.
TowerXchange: Finally, please sum up how you would differentiate Valmont from other tower design and manufacturing companies.
Kimberly Morrison, Sales Manager International, Valmont Site Pro 1:
Valmont have a global network of fully owned factories, with our own galvanisation facilities.
As a US$3.9bn corporation we have the leverage and purchasing power to drive the cost of steel down, and pass on those benefits to our customers.
Valmont manufactures to the highest standards of quality - because we own our own facilities and galvanization, we’re able to use our own employees as engineers and control the whole process, using the highest quality engineering design tools.
