Governments are spending billions to keep steel, aluminium, cement and timber made here, and factories are moving closer to the building site. Some materials have already gone offshore for good.
For most of the past 30 years, the materials on a residential site came from wherever they were cheapest. Steel, glass, timber and components arrived by ship, and that worked well enough until the pandemic showed how quickly a long supply chain can snap.
Since then, something quieter has been happening. Public money and private capital are being pushed into keeping core materials made in Australia, and into factories that do more of the work before anything reaches site.
It is not a tidy story. Some links are being rebuilt, some are being held together with public support, and some are already gone. Knowing which is which says a lot about where price and supply risk will sit over the next few years.
Governments are now paying to keep heavy materials made here
The policy frame was set by the Future Made in Australia Act 2024, which became law in December 2024. Since then, the biggest commitments have gone into the heaviest materials.
Steel is the largest test. The Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia produces 75 per cent of Australian structural steel and is the only domestic maker of long steel products, according to the joint Commonwealth and South Australian package announced in February 2025. That package was worth $2.4 billion and followed the steelworks going into administration.
The picture has moved since. In September 2026 the administrators switched off the ageing blast furnace for good, with around 500 direct jobs affected. Steel products are still being made at Whyalla, with semi finished steel brought in for the rolling mill while the sale continues. Two bidders remain, and both are proposing a new way of making steel on the site.
Aluminium has followed a similar path. In August 2026 the federal and New South Wales governments announced a $2.5 billion package for the Tomago smelter in the Hunter, which supports more than 1,000 direct jobs and faced a power contract ending in December 2028.
Cement is part of the same conversation. In December 2025 the NSW Government put $25 million into the Berrima cement works, which it describes as the state’s only integrated cement manufacturing facility, to cut coal use and keep cement making viable in the state.
None of this guarantees lower prices. What it does is keep a local option alive for materials that would otherwise be fully exposed to shipping costs and exchange rates.
Timber is where the local push is most visible
Framing timber is already a largely local product. Forest and Wood Products Australia data shows local production supplied 79.9 per cent of the roughly 3 million cubic metres of sawn softwood used in Australia in 2025. New Zealand was the largest source of imports.
The new money is going into processing, not just growing trees. The federal Forestry Growth Fund pairs $150 million in grants with $150 million in concessional finance through the National Reconstruction Fund, aimed at mass timber, engineered wood and component manufacturing. The largest slice of the grants, $85 million, is for modernising wood processing.
Projects are lining up. A proposed hardwood glulam plant at Portland in Victoria has cleared feasibility at more than $200 million, although no investor has committed yet. In Western Australia, a supplier south of Perth is lifting its framing output fourfold.
Hardwood is the pressure point. Victoria and Western Australia both ended commercial native forest logging on 1 January 2024, which narrowed local hardwood supply and puts more weight on plantations and engineered products for beams and structural members.
Factories are moving closer to the building site
Prefabrication is the other half of the story. In March 2025 the federal government committed $54 million to prefabricated and modular housing: $49.3 million for state and territory programs and $4.7 million for a voluntary national certification system for offsite construction.
That scheme is being designed by the Australian Building Codes Board and is expected to be available to manufacturers by mid 2028. It is voluntary, so existing compliance pathways stay in place.
Factories are already going up. The National Reconstruction Fund has committed $120 million in debt to a Built and Wesfarmers facility at Neerabup in Western Australia, aimed at more than 2,000 apartments a year using modular and precast concrete components. Construction is due to start in the second half of 2026.
States are buying as well. Victoria plans more than 350 modular homes by mid 2028, built in a Geelong factory, with more than 70 already delivered.
The Productivity Commission has put this in perspective. It found less than 5 per cent of all construction in Australia is prefabricated, and that prefab can cost the same as, or more than, building onsite. Scale is what changes the cost, and scale takes years.
Scale is what changes the cost, and scale takes years.
Some links in the chain have already gone offshore
Not every material is coming home. Australia no longer makes float glass, the base sheet used for windows and glazing. The country’s only producer stopped manufacturing on 6 March 2025, and a federal trade remedies review found no likelihood of production restarting in the foreseeable future.
That means glazing on every new home now starts with imported glass.
Imports carry compliance risk as well as price risk. In the 2025 to 2026 financial year, border testing recorded 41 asbestos detections, with building products the second most common category after used vehicle parts.
Three kinds of supply chain are now running side by side
Taken together, the materials on a typical residential job now fall into three groups.
The first is being rebuilt. Timber processing, frames, trusses and prefabricated components are attracting new investment and new factories.
The second is being held. Steel, aluminium and cement are being kept onshore with significant public support, and their future depends on sales, energy contracts and plant upgrades landing.
The third has already gone. Float glass is fully imported, and a local restart is not expected.
Which group a material sits in shapes how exposed that line item is to shipping costs, currency swings and product compliance checks.
What is an onshore supply chain?
An onshore supply chain is one where a material or component is made in Australia rather than imported. It does not always mean cheaper. It means the product is less exposed to shipping delays, currency movements and border compliance risk, and that a local supplier exists if overseas supply is disrupted.
The local supply chain is being rebuilt one decision at a time
There is no single plan behind any of this. The Whyalla sale, the Tomago deal, timber grant rounds and the prefab certification scheme are separate decisions on separate timelines, most of them landing between now and 2028.
What they add up to is a supply chain that is shorter in some places and thinner in others. The more useful question is not whether Australia is bringing manufacturing home. It is which of the materials on a given job that applies to.
We will keep tracking each of these decisions as they land, here and on The Good Builder Podcast.
The Good Builder Take
The onshoring story is real, but it is uneven. Local supply is a resilience gain, not a price promise.
The materials that matter most to a residential build are being supported in very different ways, and the timber and prefab end of the chain is the part actually growing. Steel and glass tell a harder story, and both are worth watching closely through 2027.
Frequently asked questions
In some areas, yes. Governments have committed billions to keep steel, aluminium and cement made locally, and new money is going into timber processing and prefabricated component factories. Other materials, such as float glass, are now fully imported.
Yes. The Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia produces most of the country’s structural steel and is the only local maker of long steel products. Its blast furnace was shut permanently in September 2026, but steel products are still being made on site while the steelworks is sold.
No. The country’s only float glass producer stopped manufacturing on 6 March 2025, and a federal trade remedies review found no likelihood of production restarting in the foreseeable future. Float glass is now imported.
Local production supplied 79.9 per cent of the sawn softwood consumed in Australia in 2025, according to Forest and Wood Products Australia. That leaves roughly a fifth imported, with New Zealand the largest source.
The Australian Building Codes Board expects the voluntary certification scheme for prefabricated construction manufacturers to be available by mid 2028. Existing ways of complying with the National Construction Code will remain valid.
Related articles
- A $200 million timber plant at Portland just cleared feasibility
- A Western Australian timber supplier is about to quadruple its framing output
- Australian Construction Industry Trends Guide
- Building Better Guide
Last updated: 6 October 2026. Figures reflect publicly available government, regulator and industry data as at that date.
General Information Only: This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice. It does not take into account your particular circumstances. You should obtain advice from a qualified professional before making any decision based on this information. While we take care to ensure the information is accurate at the time of publication, The Good Builder accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on it.
0 Comments