New standards for imported steel needed

The Australian Steel Industry (ASI) is behind a push to implement tighter standards of structural steel coming into the country.

Prompted by concerns in the quality of imported steel, the ASI, in partnership with New Zealand, is developing a plan based on the European Union’s structural steelstandard laws, with the aim of reducing the chance of counterfeited steel making it into buildings and infrastructure, which would pose a risk to public safety.

The supply of an unacceptable degree of non-compliant, unsuitable and often faulty structural steelwork is being seen increasingly in major development projects in Australia, pointing to the weakness of Australian compliance regimes compared with other developed nations like the US, Canada and the UK.

ASI’s spokesman Alan Marshall says that half of the ASI staff is working fulltime on the plan.

“What we are trying to do, the holy-grail, is [to emulate] the European CE scheme,” Marshall says.

Manufacturers of ‘safety critical’ steel building components in Europe must be certified and audited by expert third parties to ensure products are made correctly. The system also includes random sampling and testing.

In the US market, one very similar to Australia, steel is the most counterfeited building material, with structural bolts in second place, Marshall says.

The new Work, Health and Safety Act 2011 puts more significant shared responsibility on all parties in the construction value chain, specifically including manufacturers, importers, suppliers, designers and constructors. It is the ASI’s belief – supported by industry safety authorities – that rigorous rigorous material and product compliance is necessary to construct safe structures.

In order to achieve this, the ASI will work with industry bodies to communicate the risks associated with non-compliance, and educate designers and builders about the necessary steps to ensure structures are built according to design and regulatory requirements – for both local and imported steel components. As the advisory body, the ASI will also engage with members and industry around steel quality via technical journals and organizing training courses supporting the compliance imperative.

The ASI will also advocate rigorous product compliance via its representation on numerous Standards Australia committees.

Sources:
Architecture and Design
Australian Steel Institute