The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines has stated that it will increase control of the presence of substandard steel in the market. This move was made following the damage left in the wake of the recent earthquakes in Mindanao.
“We are adding more products in the mandatory compliance since many of them were released from the list. And since they are not subjected to mandatory testing, substandard products can come in,” DTI secretary Ramon Lopez said.
The department will intensify checks of rebar and angle bars, produced domestically or imported. New regulations include increasing the sample amount for product testing, checking the Philippine Standard mark (PS) and standards of local manufacturing plants, according to the DTI.
The tightening of control will not affect billets imports, but may lead to rebar production cuts at mills, which use induction furnaces, if their finished products’ quality is poor.
Finished steel imports in the Philippines increased by two percent to 2.7 million mt in the first half of 2019. Shipments of longs lost seven percent, while flats imports went up by nine percent, according to the SEAISI.