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Australian steel industry warns of import safety

The Australian Steel Institute and the Welding Technology Institute of Australia have warned the steel industry that fabricated steel entering the country from China are not up to scratch.

Welding Technology Institute of Australia chief executive Geoff Crittenden told ABC’s 7.30 program there had been some steel coming to Australia with serious quality defects.

According to the report, there have already been some safety incidents regarding Chinese imported steel, including Chinese cladding blamed for an apartment blaze in Melbourne.

Cullen Steel recently repaired a bridge project at Penrith, which was built in Vietnam and was “full of defects and bending dangerously”.

“The bridge had a design deflection of about 100 millimetres. It actually deflected about 600 millimetres. Welds started failing, materials started failing and the bridge was on the verge of collapse. We removed the bridge, cut it up and we rebuilt the bridge from scratch,” Mr Barrington said.

The same issue occurred in Western Australia with three bridges with serious defects, according to 7.30.

“We’ve seen some examples of that and it’s quite dangerous. And what concerns us most of all is that there’s going to be a terrible accident – and that’s unacceptable,” Mr Crittenden said.

Local manufacturers are feeling the pinch, with thousands of jobs at risk and an uncertain future due to the sheer volume of the Chinese imports.

Managing director of Cullen Steel Ron Barrington has been in the industry all his life, and said it has never been this bad.

“When we are forced to compete against countries that are only paying $1.30 an hour, it doesn’t matter how efficient we are and how inefficient they are: pricewise we can’t compete, so we lose,” Mr Barrington said.

Tony Dixon from the Australia Steel Institute is pushing for third party accreditation to be conducted on steel manufacturers and fabricators overseas, and wants Australian governments to buy more local products as part of a three-pronged approach.

 

 

 

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