THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has vowed to intensify its fight against substandard steel products, as it admitted they are widespread in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog markets.
Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the DTI will tighten its market monitoring and apprehension of retailers, importers and manufacturers of substandard rebars. He added that the agency will continue to carry out its confiscation of low grade steel bars to prevent them from reaching consumers.
Lopez is responding to a report by the Philippine Institute of Steel and Iron (Pisi) asking the DTI to strengthen its market monitoring and standards enforcement program.
The Pisi report to the DTI claimed substandard rebars are being sold in several hardware stores in the Cordilleras, specifically Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao. The group found this out in the market monitoring and test buys it initiated early this year.
Lopez found it necessary to intensify the campaign against substandards, as recent DTI monitoring discovered their proliferation in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog stores.
“All monitoring done nationwide, but recently issued notice of violations [are] mostly in Regions 3, 4A and 4B. They [violators] are given time to explain, but if [we find] sufficient grounds, we file cases,” Lopez told the BusinessMirror.
The Pisi in its report claimed it found substandard steel bars being sold in the Cordillera, produced by Wan Chiong Steel Corp.—whose operations were suspended by the DTI last year—as well as Real Steel Manufacturing Corp., United Steel Master Manufacturing Corp. and Maxima Steel Mills Corp.
The mills of the four steel manufacturers accused of producing inferior rebars are situated within and around Central Luzon. Wan Chiong and Real Steel are operating in Pampanga, while United Steel and Maxima are based in Valenzuela City.
The trade chief did not state how many notices of violation the DTI issued over the past months, but said half of those ticketed were charged and penalized in accordance with laws on product standards and fair trade.
Concrete reinforcing steel bar, also known as rebar, is primarily used for the construction of houses. It functions as a tension device in reinforced concretes that fortifies and supports the concrete under tension.