Scope of this guide. Published costs, savings and schedules are indicative examples, not a project quotation or guarantee. Compare the same location, specification and scope. Structural supply, civil works, building services, finishes and logistics must be confirmed separately; permit and engineering requirements depend on the site.
In short
- NewCon Steel® frames walls, floor cassettes, and trusses in its Panama City plant from LGS members CNC-cut to ±0.5 mm, then ships them numbered and sequenced to be lifted, plumbed, and fastened.
- Loose profiles and panels use the same steel; the difference is where the framing happens and how it is checked.
- Compared with generic steel, panels move four tasks off site: field cutting, penetration layout, framing openings, and coating touch-up. NewCon Steel loose profiles already remove three; panels add the framing.
- Panelizing pays where there is repetition, scarce skilled labor, or a remote site; stick-built framing still fits when your crew wants to set the pace or the design is still moving.
- Maximum panel size is set by the transport and lifting equipment available at the destination and agreed in the takeoff before fabrication.
- Panels are quoted per m² of panel with a formal quote in 48 h, and erection falls to your contractor or to SmartBrix Construction under a separate contract.
NewCon Steel® manufactures pre-assembled structural panels: walls, floor cassettes, and trusses framed in its Panama City plant from cold-formed steel (CFS) members, also called light-gauge steel (LGS), CNC-cut and punched to ±0.5 mm (±0.02 in). Compared with stick-built framing, the steel is identical; what changes is where the assembly happens, how it is checked, and which crew you need on site. Panels arrive numbered and sequenced to the structural model, and the site crew lifts, plumbs, and fastens them.
This guide is written for technical buyers, structural engineers, general contractors (GCs), and framing subcontractors.
What a pre-assembled structural panel is
A structural panel is an assembly of LGS/CFS members that is already framed: a bearing wall with its studs, tracks, and opening reinforcement; a floor cassette with its joists; or a complete roof truss. NewCon Steel frames it in the plant from its LGS/CFS profiles, 0.85 to 2.5 mm (0.033–0.098 in) thick, with a Zn-Al-Mg coating of 275 g/m² total across both faces (0.90 oz/ft²; the same coating mass as G90).
Stick-built framing follows a different sequence. Members arrive loose, and the crew frames each wall, floor, or truss on site, one piece at a time. With NewCon Steel, even loose profiles arrive cut to the lengths on the cut list, punched, marked, and labeled, so nobody measures or cuts in the field. The material is the same in both methods. The difference is who frames the assembly, and where.
NewCon Steel structural panels come in three families:
- Walls: bearing walls and shear walls, with door and window openings already framed.
- Floors: floor cassettes and light-gauge steel joists.
- Trusses: roof trusses and roof structure.
MEP service penetrations are punched in the plant. Panels are designed to AISI S240-20, the North American standard for cold-formed steel structural framing, with members designed to AISI S100-16 (R2020) with Supplement 3 (S3-22), and they are checked against the destination code: REP-2021 in Panama, NSR-10 in Colombia, or the IBC in the Caribbean. See engineering and standards.
A panel is not a volumetric module. Modular construction, with complete rooms and pre-integrated MEP systems, is a SmartBrix Construction line. As with a structural kit, panel supply does not include foundations, envelope, MEP systems, finishes, or erection.
Loose profiles vs. panels, row by row
The table compares two NewCon Steel scopes: loose profiles and pre-assembled panels. If you are also considering a structural kit, which puts the whole structure on one purchase order, the three-level comparison is in the buying guide.
| Criterion | Loose profiles (stick-built on site) | Pre-assembled panels (framed in the plant) |
|---|---|---|
| Where the assembly is framed | On the job site, on the slab or in a site work area | In the NewCon Steel plant, indoors, on a jig |
| Site labor | A framing crew that builds walls, floors, and trusses piece by piece | An erection crew that lifts, plumbs, and fastens assemblies already framed |
| Precision | Members CNC-cut and punched to ±0.5 mm; assembly squareness depends on field framing | The same ±0.5 mm members; assembly squareness and dimensions checked against the shop drawing before bundling |
| Quality control | Label and traceability on every piece; the contractor checks the assembled frame | Checked on the jig; identified by lot and by position in the model; traceable to the originating steel lot |
| Lifting | Piece by piece; frames built on site are raised with the contractor's equipment | Whole panel; its size is matched to the lifting equipment at the destination |
| Shipping | Profiles bundled, strapped, and identified by lot | Panels bundled, strapped, and identified by lot; they take up more cargo space per metric ton than profiles |
| Quoting unit | Linear meter (3.28 ft) or metric ton (1,000 kg) | m² of panel |
| What you approve before fabrication | The cut list by family, thickness, and length | The panel takeoff: walls, floors, and trusses, numbered and sequenced |
Table scope: NewCon Steel supply at Level 1 (material) and Level 2 (pre-assembled), with members from the same CNC line. Foundations, envelope, MEP systems, finishes, and erection are not part of this supply.
Framed indoors, checked against the drawing
For NewCon Steel, framing in the plant is a quality-control decision. On a jig, under a roof, square is verified, fasteners are driven to a consistent torque, and a wrong piece is caught before the panel is closed.
Before bundling, every panel is checked for squareness and dimensions against the shop drawing, numbered by its position in the model, identified by lot, and secured for transport.
Framing and dimensional checks happen at the plant in Centro Industrial PEB, Las Mañanitas, Panama City, using members cut and punched to ±0.5 mm on the roll-forming line. The practical reason is the cost of an error. In the plant, a panel that is out of square takes one adjustment to fix; on an island job site, with the crane on a day rate, the same error can set back the schedule.
Because every piece is traceable to its steel lot, the mill certificate (mill test report, MTR) is already tied to the order when the owner's representative or the plan reviewer asks for it.
What comes off the job site
Compared with generic steel in stock lengths, a pre-assembled panel removes four tasks from the job site: field cutting of profiles, hand layout of service penetrations, framing openings flat on the slab, and touching up coating on edges cut with an angle grinder. NewCon Steel loose profiles already remove three of them, because they arrive cut, punched, and labeled. What a panel adds is moving the framing itself off site: the frame, its openings, and its squareness.
What stays on site is lifting, plumbing, and fastening. That is erection work, so the site team is planned around lifting, alignment, and connections.
Panels are fastened with screws and bolts, with no field welding. The Zn-Al-Mg coating applied to the coil therefore reaches the finished building intact; welding would destroy it in the heat-affected zone and force a field repair that does not match the factory coating.
What changes in the schedule
NewCon Steel does not publish a time-savings or labor-savings percentage, because the result depends on the crew, the project, and the site. What changes is the sequence. Panel framing happens in the plant and, as a general principle of off-site construction, it can run while the site prepares the foundations. Compare both complete schedules from the same start date. Lead time for each order is confirmed in writing in the quote.
Who does what
NewCon Steel supplies the steel; SmartBrix Construction executes the construction; PEB Corp provides the engineering and the institutional relationship. Panel erection is performed by the buyer's appointed contractor or under a separate construction contract with SmartBrix. Confirm in writing who is responsible for foundations, anchors, unloading, and lifting. If you need a finished building, turnkey delivery in cold-formed steel framing is handled by SmartBrix Construction.
Where panelizing pays (and where it doesn't)
Panelization pays where there is repetition, where skilled labor is scarce, or where the job site is far from the plant. NewCon Steel names three typical cases:
- Multifamily and repeat single-family housing. The same wall or floor is made many times, and a plant repeats that work under tighter control than a job site.
- Education and healthcare. Classrooms, clinics, and expansions with hard deadlines in buildings that stay in operation, where less site work means less disruption to the running facility.
- Caribbean and remote projects. When bringing a skilled crew and cutting equipment to the site costs more than shipping the framed panel, the skilled work stays in Panama.
In other cases, loose profiles fit better, or only part of the structure should be panelized. Review these before you commit to panels:
- Your crew frames on site and wants to set the pace. Labeled profiles let you schedule framing on your own terms.
- The design is still moving. Panels are built to an approved takeoff, and a later change means rebuilding the assembly. Freeze the design of the areas you plan to panelize before production.
- The site cannot unload or lift large pieces. Tight lots, restricted access, or levels beyond crane reach shrink the usable panel size, and the benefit with it.
- Renovations without verified dimensions. Panels are built to the drawings, so field-measure the existing building before fabrication.
- Little repetition at low volume. When nearly every wall is different, the plant's repetition advantage fades.
The two methods can be combined: panels for repetitive walls and trusses, and loose profiles for one-off elements. If you want everything on a single purchase order, with connections, accessories, and structural calculations, the scope is a structural kit.
Bundled, numbered, and sequenced for erection
NewCon Steel ships every panel numbered and sequenced to its position in the structural model, bundled, and identified by lot. That identification is what the crew reads on site: each panel has a label and a position in the erection sequence.
Maximum panel size depends on the transport mode, the port of entry, and the lifting equipment on site. It is agreed with you during takeoff engineering, before fabrication, so no panel is built that cannot be unloaded at the site.
Before the purchase order, settle these points with your contractor:
- Transport mode, port or delivery address, and delivery terms.
- Who unloads, where panels are stored, and in what order they are staged against the erection sequence.
- Which lifting equipment is on site, and who provides it.
- Who is responsible for the foundations and anchors.
The NewCon Steel erection guide explains how pieces and panels are identified, lifted, and fastened; request it from the technical documentation page. Every panel shipment leaves the plant with the shop drawing and the mill certificate.
For export orders, NewCon Steel also issues a Panamanian certificate of origin (HS 72.16); import treatment is decided by the destination customs. From Panama, transit to Central America and the Caribbean takes days, not weeks. See coverage and shipping by country.
An order follows this sequence: you send drawings or the model with the destination country and port, approve the panel takeoff, and receive a formal quote within 48 hours, priced per m² of panel, with scope, quantities, fabrication time, and shipping terms. NewCon Steel publishes no prices. If you need signed structural calculations with the supply, the scope is a kit.
To see where supply fits in the full sequence of a building, read PEB Corp's overview of the prefab steel construction process.
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