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The Department of Commerce and Industry has begun seizing substandard steel products from hardware stores, while the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI) is intensifying its trial buying operations at suspected substandard products.
The reinforced transmission versus substandard steel follows the flooding of substandard rebar, angle bars, and unmarked and unregistered bars.
PISI has been deploying test purchase teams for the past few months and has submitted suspect sample products to DTI, which then sends them to a government laboratory, the Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC), for your analysis.
Ronald Magsajo, president of PISI, said.
MIRDC has found several samples of trial purchase operations that do not meet product standards in terms of weight and size. Other products were found to have unregistered or unmarked brands, making it difficult to trace their source or producer.
“The pandemic has made people price sensitive and some unscrupulous manufacturers have taken advantage of this,” Magsajo said.
Last month, DTI’s La Unión provincial office confiscated the inferior products.
“We will deploy more teams in more areas because we think we have just scratched the surface of this problem. These products are smuggled, but they are largely made locally in factories that have been emerging using induction furnace (IF) technology that China banned in 2017 as a major source of smog in and around Beijing, ”he said.
China’s ban eliminated about 140 million metric tons of FI capacity and this outdated but cheap technology has made its way into Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines.
Magsajo said that four years ago, there were only about 5 FI factories in the country with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons. With China’s ban, FI factories here increased to 13 with a capacity of more than one million metric tons and “this growing trend must stop to protect the public and the environment.
