The 160×100×12m steel warehouse we delivered in Argentina stands seven metres above sea level on the Riachuelo floodplain, in the Lanús district of Greater Buenos Aires. The area takes roughly 1,140 mm of rain a year with no dry season, and a single 24-hour storm in March 2024 dropped 130 mm and flooded streets across Lanús. A power equipment manufacturer needed 19,800 m² of covered space, and Xinguangzheng designed and delivered both structures to meet that brief.
The challenge
Our client builds small engines, generators and pumps for the Argentine market. Assembly, machining and finished-goods storage had spread across separate leased units rather than one consolidated steel production facility, and the movement between them set the pace of production. The brief covered two structures: a 16,000 m² production hall with 12 metres of clear height, and a new roof over a 3,800 m² yard already enclosed by existing perimeter walls.
Because the plot is hemmed in by working streets and neighbouring factories, no laydown area was available for incoming steel. Every truck had to cross the Riachuelo and thread through the narrow industrial grid around Puente Alsina. Delivery sequencing mattered as much as fabrication quality — one container out of order would have idled the crane for a full shift.
Design was frozen in 2025 against CIRSOC 101-2005 loads, CIRSOC 102-2005 wind and CIRSOC 301-2018 steel provisions, the steel code in national force since July 2023. INPRES-CIRSOC 103 places Buenos Aires in Seismic Zone 0, so wind governs the lateral system. That is what shapes a 160×100×12m steel warehouse in Argentina built beside the Riachuelo: the river and the humidity write the specification, not earthquakes.
What we built
The new hall measures 160 m × 100 m with 12 m clear height under the haunch — 16,000 m² on a three-span cross-section of 30 m, 40 m and 30 m, portal frames at 8 m centres. The retrofit roof covers 3,800 m² over a 50 m × 76 m footprint. All steel was fabricated in Qingdao and shipped to Exolgan container terminal at Dock Sud, then hauled under 10 km to site.
Weighing a rigid frame against a lattice truss, we took the bolted portal frame for the main hall: the 40 m centre span could arrive in three site-spliced sections, where an equivalent truss would have needed more field welding than a site with no laydown area could absorb. For the retrofit, we kept every load off the existing masonry — new columns stand on their own pads set 400 mm inside the old walls, which now carry only themselves.
Here is how we addressed the six core technical requirements:
- Flood clearance — finished floor set 850 mm above the adjoining street crown, 300 mm above the high-water line the client had marked on the old boundary wall after March 2024.
- Electrical safety under flood — electrical enclosure mounting was set by the river, not by routing: distribution boards and socket outlets sit with the lowest live component at 1.20 m above finished floor.
- Wind design — wind pressure on the frame was taken from the CIRSOC 102 basic speed of 45.0 m/s, a 3-second gust at 10 m for Exposure C, with braced bays at both ends and mid-length.
- Corrosion protection — Sa 2½ blast and three-coat epoxy/polyurethane to 280 μm DFT on primary steel, hot-dip galvanised secondary steel, specified for ISO 12944 C4-High durability.
- Crane provision — two 10-tonne overhead travelling cranes in the outer bays, duty class A5, rails at 9.5 m, with crane runway beam sizing governed by a deflection limit of span/600.
- Envelope and fire — 75 mm PIR sandwich roof panel, 0.30 W/m²K to EN 14509, core certified to EN 13501-1 Class B-s1,d0, with ridge ventilation at 1.8% free area.
Sea freight ran Qingdao to Dock Sud, and two of our supervisors worked alongside an Argentine erection crew. One problem surfaced in week two: trial pits found soft post-pampeano silty clay deeper than the survey indicated, which would have settled under the crane columns and pulled the rails out of level. Rather than redesign the frame, we widened the pads on both crane column lines and added short bored piles beneath them, at a cost of four working days.
19,800 m² / total covered area delivered 1,247 t / structural steel, including crane runways and retrofit roof 11 weeks / on-site erection across both structures
160 × 100 m · 12 m clear height · 45.0 m/s design wind · 2 × 10 t cranes · 75 mm PIR roof · 19,800 m²
Technical specification
| Item | Figure | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Main hall footprint | 160 m × 100 m | 16,000 m² single-roof production envelope |
| Span arrangement | 30 + 40 + 30 m | Two internal column lines, clear machining bays |
| Clear height | 12 m | Stacked racking plus crane hook clearance |
| Frame spacing | 8 m centres | 21 frames; balances steel weight against purlin span |
| Roof pitch | 1:20 | Drains to boxed valley gutters and external downpipes |
| Design wind speed | 45.0 m/s | CIRSOC 102-2005 value for Buenos Aires |
| Code set | CIRSOC 101-05 / 102-05 / 301-18 | Design frozen 2025, before Resolución 11/2026 |
| Seismic zone | Zone 0 | INPRES-CIRSOC 103; wind governs lateral design |
| Finished floor level | +850 mm above street crown | 300 mm freeboard over the 2024 high-water mark |
| Switchgear mounting | 1.20 m above finished floor | Live parts above credible internal flood level |
| Cranes | 2 × 10 t EOT, duty A5, rail 9.5 m | Engine block and generator set handling |
| Runway deflection limit | Span/600 | Protects rail alignment and wheel contact |
| Roof panel | 75 mm PIR, 0.30 W/m²K (EN 14509) | Limits summer heat gain on the assembly floor |
| Panel fire class | EN 13501-1 B-s1,d0 | Reaction-to-fire class for the insulated core |
| Coating | Sa 2½, 280 μm DFT, C4-High | Riverside industrial atmosphere, high humidity |
| Retrofit roof | 3,800 m² over 50 × 76 m | Independent columns; no load on existing walls |
| Steel tonnage | 1,247 t | Primary, secondary, crane runways, retrofit roof |
Fire detection, sprinkler and fire-water systems were designed and installed by the client’s local contractor; our supply covered the structural frame, envelope, crane runways and framed openings for smoke vents.
Results after five months of occupancy
Handover took place on 26 February 2026, on the date agreed at contract, at the tail of the Buenos Aires summer with the March rainfall peak a week ahead. The client moved the first assembly line into the north bay the following week, and both structures went straight into the wettest month of the Argentine calendar.
Five months of occupancy now cover the March rainfall maximum and the June humidity peak near 78%. The client reports that the raised slab and perimeter drainage held the production floor dry through the autumn storm sequence, and that ridge ventilation kept the working level cooler over summer than the leased units it replaced. Envelope behaviour through the first winter is consistent with the 0.30 W/m²K roof specification.
Based on modelling at the GBA Sur industrial warehouse leasing rates reported for the first half of 2026, USD 5.21 per m² per month, holding 16,000 m² in an owned building rather than leased space represents roughly USD 1,000,320 a year in avoided rent. The coating system is projected to reach first maintenance repaint in year 17 under C4-High exposure. Building beside the Riachuelo changes the brief from the slab upward — floor level, switchgear height, base plate detailing and the coating life you can stand behind are all set by the river, not by a catalogue.
Xinguangzheng designs and prefabricates industrial steel buildings in Qingdao for manufacturers on constrained urban sites — high-clearance production halls, crane-served bays, and re-roofing work over existing walls. If you have a site, a footprint, and a production brief, we can return a preliminary structural layout and a delivered cost estimate, with the supply boundary stated, within three to four working days.
“The height is what everyone noticed first. We were working under six metres, and now the forklifts and the crane operate over each other without anyone having to stop for the other. It’s still early — we’ll know more once the second line is running at full rate — but the difference on the assembly floor was obvious in the first week.”— Federico González, Plant Operations Manager
