Philippine news

They are digging up the street gutters in our area again.

The previous mayor put in a large covered irrigation ditch near our home, to carry water off from the nearby Palenke that flooded badly in the typhoon a few years ago. (It was finally done right before the election of course.).

Well, it collapsed under the weight of trucks... There is a huge hole in the street, with the concrete in small chunks and the reinforcing bars sagging into the hole.

So even though it is awhile until the next election , they are fixing the problem. (the new mayor seems to be honest and actually using city funds for the city)

the question: Was the construction done poorly (i.e. they didn't mix the concrete correctly and didn't let it harden long enough) or was the concrete/ reinforcing bars substandard?

This article is about substandard reinforcing bars beind sold in hardware stores.

There is an industry alert about the problem here, with details.

Unscrupulous manufacturers will deliberate roll a rebar with -10% or more variance! These lightweight products are unsafe, and will not perform to the design specification and standard. When caught, the common excuse is to claim it is a smaller specification. For example, an undersized 12mm if caught will be declared as an “oversized” 10mm. Or more commonly, an undersized 10mm rebar if caught will be declared as an oversized 8mm bar. Consumers should not be fooled by this, and the Philippine Standard was crafted anticipating this excuse. Hence an oversized bar greater than +6% is also not permitted.
Every concrete structure is reinforced with bars, so that when the earth moves (usually earthquakes but also floods etc), the concrete that cracks won't collapse easily.

this story from NewZealand shows that first world buyers can be duped too, if they don't inspect it carefully.

the problem? In poor countries you can often get away with it by bribing the inspectors.


the Gov't of China knows about it and are trying to shut down the factories.
Reuters has more details.

or, as this article wonders, will the push of China into Africa allow them to dump their substandard steel there?

substandard steel manufacturing is also a problem in India.

Sigh.

if you can afford it, you buy Japanese or American stuff. If you can't, you buy cheap (Chinese) stuff and hope it doesn't fall apart quickly.

So why not buy locally? Because China undersells and bankrupts local industries here. Part of it is efficiency, part of it is government subsidies, and part of it is their artificially manipulated currency that makes their products cheap.

But some of it is corruption: knowing your product is shoddy, but figuring that poor Pinoys (or Africans) won't check and you can get away with it.

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