Data Center Developers Turn to Timber Amid Rising Steel Costs and Delays

Industry Pulse News Desk · 2026-09-16

Surging steel prices and extended procurement lead times are prompting data center builders to consider mass timber as a structural alternative.

Data center developers are increasingly evaluating mass timber as a viable building material alternative to traditional steel, driven by elevated material costs and ongoing supply chain delays across the global industrial construction sector.

Representatives from major construction management firm Skanska stated during a recent industry briefing that extended procurement timelines for structural steel have forced project teams to actively pursue alternative structural strategies to maintain aggressive facility delivery schedules.

Mass timber engineered products, such as cross-laminated timber, feature high-precision prefabrication capabilities that allow for off-site manufacturing and streamlined on-site assembly. Project planners are looking to deploy these wood components in administrative blocks, utility structures, and low-load sectors of enterprise server campuses.

The industry exploration of alternative framing materials comes amid an unprecedented wave of digital infrastructure construction worldwide. Rapid investment in artificial intelligence applications and cloud computing infrastructure has created intense competition for structural steel components, exacerbating procurement bottlenecks and driving up baseline development expenses.

While structural steel remains the dominant material for heavy load-bearing central server halls, construction managers report that integrating mass timber allows developers to diversify their supply chains, mitigate costly schedule overruns, and support broader corporate targets for embodied carbon reduction in new builds.