Banned in China in 2017 due to their harmful effects on the environment and inability to produce quality steel products, induction furnaces (IF) are now alarmingly sprouting like mushrooms in the Philippines.
It is appalling how local governments have become enthusiastic recipients of these junks being brought into the country by Chinese investors with the aid of local businessmen who are willing to take this banned equipment in China as an equity investment in partnerships.
Slowly, we are following the path of China before these IFs were banned there—the Philippines is producing more substandard steel bars that put the lives and properties of Filipinos at risk while releasing more pollutants to the air.
A double whammy!
Is this a sign of lax rules on the part of concerned government agencies? I don’t think so. It is more likely that the original Chinese owners of these junks just managed to take advantage of us because—as what they probably surmised—underdeveloped countries like the Philippines and its Asean neighbors would be caught off guard and allow the entry of the antiquated IF technology to manufacture unsuitable or low quality products.
Because of this, the past four years have seen an exponential growth of IF capacity in the country. Now, we are staring at a consumer safety and environmental crisis.
The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute joined the Asean Iron and Steel Council in pleading to the China Iron and Steel Authority to police the export of IF equipment into the region. The response from the CISA was blunt—it is up to the Asean governments to protect their own backyards.
Insane! CISA makes me think of Sisa, the mother of Crispin and Basilio in Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere who went insane when her two sons went missing. Our authorities should not take this as a mere challenge but virtually a slap on their faces. With what is happening now, it’s like saying they are inutile.
But knowing Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, we will certainly begin to feel the winds of change once they’ve been thoroughly apprised of what’s happening.
To Secretary Lopez, who is our chief guardian of consumer welfare, this is the telling fact: The inability of induction furnaces to remove impurities and refine molten steel makes it impossible to control the chemistry of the melt and therefore the failure to consistently achieve the mechanical or chemical properties (chemical composition, tensile yield and strength, elongation) required by the Philippine National Standard. Simply put, the output is substandard.
Even the former president of CISA and chairman of World Steel Association, Yu Yong, attests that these induction furnaces are producing substandard steel. This forced the hand of Premier Li Keqiang to shut down these IF mills. Yu stressed that steelmaking is a strict “smelting” process to ensure the quality of the output and not a simple “melting” like what the IF mills are doing. Smelting involves heating, oxygen blowing, slagging, deoxidation, and other processes to remove impurities such as sulfur, phosphorous, and gas to achieve the desired temperature and chemistry. IF mills only melt scrap steel.
To Secretary Cimatu, the Chinese experience is something to ponder: Induction furnaces significantly contributed to the widespread pollution crisis during and after the Beijing Olympics that caused an international embarrassment and prompted the government to ban the technology. The DENR has previously cited and sanctioned IF mills for violating the terms of their ECC or having no ECC at all.
Reports said the IF mills have shifted production operations at night to avoid visible pollution and to make the testing done during daytime yield satisfactory results. Making them pay fines for environmental violations is definitely not enough because of the risks that their products pose to Filipino consumers.
I can now imagine President Duterte ranting with so much passion against this once he learns what these IF mills are doing to our country.
Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza is the chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade; a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.