Steel accounts for more than 60 percent of direct material cost in a typical tracker, according to industry cost-structure reports, with slew drives, control boxes and galvanising making up most of the remainder.
Trade measures act on input prices, but their effect on project cost depends on the structure of the bill of materials. Without a BOM baseline, a tariff percentage cannot be translated into a CAPEX effect.
This entry builds the data foundation for the Trade Monthly transmission model.
What the data says
The structure table
We publish steel, slew drive, electrical control box and galvanising shares as percentages, and state the denominator and the year of the source in the same table.
Reading the units
Sensitivity, with assumptions
A plus or minus 10 percent move in steel price is shown against the BOM and then against illustrative project CAPEX. The result is a range with stated assumptions, not a forecast.
Two denominators in circulation
Some reports use direct material cost, others use a broader 'tangible cost' of about 80 percent of total. Mixing them produces a false precision, so each figure carries its denominator.
Data box
| Field | Value as reported |
|---|---|
| Steel | >60 percent of direct material cost |
| Slew drive | 12.1 percent |
| Electrical control box | 9.9 percent |
| Galvanising | 7.4 percent |
| Alternative denominator | Tangible cost about 80 percent of total |
All figures above are quoted with the unit and reference period used by the primary source. They are reproduced here for reference, not independently re-measured.
What the number does not mean: verification note
Cost shares come from industry reports using two different denominators. Source, year and denominator are printed with every figure; the two bases are never mixed.
What to watch next
A vendor or EPC disclosure that breaks down tracker BOM cost from primary data.
Primary sources
- Industry cost-structure reports (state source and year explicitly)
- LME, World Steel Association / CRU / Fastmarkets price series
- Vendor 10-K cost of goods disclosures
Figures are reproduced with their original units and reference periods. solarrack.wiki does not restate vendor-reported data as independently audited statistics.
Researched and written by the solarrack.wiki editorial desk. Every figure in this article carries a source and a verification note; where a claim could not be confirmed against a primary document, it is labelled as such. Corrections: [email protected]
