Building Products Industry

The global industry that supplies material used in construction, spanning naturally occurring substances such as clay, rock, sand and wood that have been used to build structures since antiquity, alongside man made products of varying degrees of synthesis such as fired brick and cement based composites. The industry is distinguished from the building products industry, which covers only ready made components such as windows, doors and cabinets rather than the underlying materials themselves, and from the construction materials industry, which centers specifically on mined aggregate used in concrete and asphalt.

The segment of the building materials industry that manufactures building products, ready made components and sections used in construction, including hardware, decorative elements, windows, doors and millwork, along with assembly aids such as caulking, adhesives and paint. Building products are distinguished within the broader building material industry, which spans both naturally occurring materials such as clay, sand, stone and wood and manufactured products such as fired brick, cement based composites, concrete, glass, metal, plastic and ceramics, from base construction materials themselves, since building products are pre made components intended to support modular construction rather than raw material inputs. The manufacture and use of building materials is an established industry in many countries, typically organized into specialized trades such as carpentry, insulation installation, plumbing and roofing.