Usually for steel construction material, a profile, formed with a specific shape or cross section and certain standards of chemical composition and mechanical properties. Structural steel shape, size, composition, strength, storage, etc, is regulated in most industrialized countries.

In most developed countries, the shapes available are set out in published standards such as I-beams, H-beams, C-shaped, L-shaped, T-shaped have high second moments of area, which allow them to be very stiff in respect to their cross-sectional area.