Sale of faulty steel bared

OLONGAPO CITY—A steel industry group has asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to investigate and stop the sale of substandard steel bars that have been found among the stocks of several hardware stores in northern and central Luzon.

Roberto Cola, president of the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (Pisi), told Trade Undersecretary Teodoro Pascua that his group had sent a team to hardware stores in northern and central Luzon after receiving reports about the proliferation of substandard steel bars.

“Our institute had taken necessary actions by conducting market test-buy to check the quality of deformed and rerolled bars being offered for sale in the market,” Cola said in a letter to the DTI.

Joel Ronquillo, Pisi vice president for technical affairs, said the team visited 17 hardware stores in Tarlac City and Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya provinces.

According to Ronquillo, Pisi had already reported to the DTI that some hardware stores had been selling 9-millimeter diameter rebars.

“This is an outright violation because the 9-mm diameter rebar is not in the rebar sizes listed under PNS 49:2002 and PNS 211:2002,” Ronquillo said, referring to the Philippine National Standards for steel bars.

He said samples that the group had bought failed tests.

“Similar to fraudulent selling, these substandard rebars compromise the safety of the general public,” he said.

Cola and Ronquillo asked the DTI to conduct nationwide monitoring and standards enforcement campaign.

The group also recommended the filing of charges against local manufacturers and hardware store owners selling substandard steel bars. —ALLAN MACATUNO