Posted on 21 Jan 2015
Trade association UK Steel said Chinese data showed that its exported rebar contains small amounts of other elements to qualify the steel as an alloy, which benefits from an export tax rebate.
It said a “significant but unknown proportion” of Chinese rebar sold in the UK contains boron in excess of 8 parts per million and that samples had been tested with boron at 30 parts per million.
According to guidance from The Welding Institute, the body responsible for the professional registration and certification of welders and joiners, rebar containing boron in excess of 5 parts per million requires different welding techniques.
UK Steel director Ian Rodgers said: “Our advice to any fabricator with stocks of Chinese rebar is that they should urgently identify any bars containing more than 5 ppm of boron and segregate them.
“These bars should not be used in structures requiring welding until staff have been trained in the specific welding techniques required.”
CARES chief executive Ben Bowsher told Construction News the British Standard for rebar, BS4449, does not reference boron, but that it would investigate the claims.
“CARES investigates all issues regarding its schemes and this is no exception,” he said.
Last July, video evidence shared with Construction News showed unlabelled, and potentially non-compliant, bundles of imported rebar on the Liverpool docks and in transit on British roads.
Then, in August, samples of Chinese rebar failed to meet British Standards in independent laboratory tests.
Mr Bowsher said investigations into these complaints did not reveal any issues.
He said: “With respect to the past investigations, CARES found nothing incorrect in any bars that it examined.
“This included full reassessments of the steel mills concerned in China.”
In a House of Commons debate on the steel industry on 14 January, shadow business minister Iain Wright called on the government to press the European Commission to launch an inquiry into the CARES certification of imported steel products.
He said: “I want to flag up the issue because it raises serious questions about the structural integrity of buildings and infrastructure.”
He also raised concerns that “China and Turkey are subsidising their steel exports, making it impossible for UK and European steel products to compete on a level playing field, and domestic steel production suffers”.
In response, business secretary Vince Cable said the government had initiated an inquiry by the UK Accreditation Service to investigate whether the certification process was working and whether the correct testing procedures were being followed.
Mr Cable said: “[UKAS] said that, having checked, there was no particular fault within the Chinese products.
“We have had further strong representations from Celsa, among others, and further investigations are taking place as a result.
“We want to make absolutely sure that the process is investigated.
“So far, no hard evidence has been found of a serious fault in the Chinese products.
“There may be such a fault, but we have to find the evidence and, so far, we have not done so.”
CARES certifies that concrete reinforcing products comply with the required standards and also guarantees full traceability of the materials from steel mill to site, through marking, labelling and documentation requirements.
