SON moves to curb rising trend of sub-standard steel production
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has indicted local steel manufacturers over sharp production practices describing the increase of the volume of substandard iron and steel products in the market as attributable to such actions.
The Director-General of SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, who made this known at a press briefing in Lagos, explained that after carrying out an enforcement exercise recently, the agency found that most manufacturers had begun to cut corners on the required standards for iron and steel.
He however noted that the agency had started to introduce measures to reverse the trend.
Highlighting the various areas where local steel manufacturers had compromised standards, Odumodu noted that the steel products that were supposed to measure 16 millimetres (mm) in diameter were discovered to measure only 14mm thereby falling short of acceptable standards by two millimetres with significant impact on the overall strength.
He also stated that the iron and steel products that were supposed to measure 12mm measured only 10mm in diameter, while those which were supposed to be 10mm diameter were made to measure only eight millimetres.
The SON chief executive stated further that from the agency’s investigation so far, it is unable to exonerate any of the local manufacturers totalling about 20 companies in the country.
Stressing other areas of compromise on the quality of iron and steel by manufacturers in the country, Odumodu said the SON also observed serious violations in the area of length of various units of steel products.
“The length of a unit of steel bar is supposed to be around 12mm, but after our enforcement exercise we discovered that each unit of product in the market had lengths that were short by as much as two millimetres.
He also identified that apart from the standards violation in terms of physical properties like diameter and length, the manufacturers also failed to meet acceptable standards in the area of chemical properties such as carbon and manganese content.
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1 Comments
This is the kind of things that kills Nigeria local production. criminals trying to cheat the system. just as we work to increase local production of everything, and increase Nigerian’s demand for locally made item, we get this kind of rubbish. The regulators needs to quickly put an end to this madness and ensure that only quality product are sold. anyway company found cheating should be fined heavily and monitor strictly. if they continue to cheat, they should be closed down. we need to increase our local production, however we also need it to be of high quality.
We will review and take appropriate action.