Half Steel Sold For Chinese Construction Fails Quality Tests

This comes from the Master of the Midwest, I have nothing to offer but a fk u China. The BrewMan Several months ago I posted a link to a slew of accidents occurring on Shanghai’s subway system to hell; well, it appears the whore of the orient, as all of China has, has sold out her buildings’ structural integrity for the price of a 5-minute quickie – HALF of steel sold on wholesale markets used for construction failed quality tests: and these are Chinese quality tests, ones that say, “Cool. Your PDD kid is gifted as the sweet gold mines of patent piles we possess; forward the 12-year-old terrets ‘tard to college.” http://shanghaiscrap.com/2008/03/avoid-tall-buildings/ “So I must say I was more than a little surprised when my beloved Shanghai Daily ran a story – this morning – containing this jaw-dropping revelation: HALF the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests. The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau inspected 52 batches of steel material at three markets and 15 construction sites in seven districts, including Xuhui, Zhabei and Baoshan, and officials said 27 batches had quality problems. There are – according to the story – a couple of problems: the steel was often too light (five times too light, in one case) to meet construction standards; 48% of the tested steel lacked sufficient carbon content, rendering the material dangerously brittle; and 22% of the tested products failed tension tests. […] “What’s most disturbing is that this is not a new issue. Overseas buyers of Chinese structural steel and other ferrous products have long known that Chinese manufactured steel typically doesn’t meet the quality (and chemistry) standards of foreign countries. But I think even the foreign importers would be shocked to learn that Chinese steelmakers are perfectly content selling substandard structural steel into Shanghai’s construction markets. So let me be the first to state: This isn’t just bad business; it’s immoral. And what’s even worse is that the steelmakers know full well that they can get away with it, and have been doing so for years. According to Xinhua: Officials said building inspection does not include measuring weight and thickness for steel at present, which allows manufacturers to lower the standard. No surprise, the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau won’t identify the companies who manufacture the sub-standard steel. Most likely, those companies are state-owned; but even if they’re private, they have powerful friends (no other way to stay in that business, after all). It would be nice to know, of course, but it would be even nicer to know which building construction projects were tested, and whether they were allowed to continue (I bet they were) with the understanding that they would utilize steel that meets the Bureau’s quality tests. And, of course, as someone who frequents Shanghai’s buildings, I’d like to know which ones were built with steel from the sub-standard steel mills. But I’m not holding my breath.