Advanced Search

Share Coverage



Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Industry / Steel / Building and Construction

Growing clamour for a royal commission into Australia's steel industry

Friday, 8 Apr 2016 15:19:13 | Louise Yaxley

A Senate committee has heard lives are at risk because of imported steel. (ABC News: Nick Harmsen)

Members of the welding profession have joined growing calls for a royal commission into Australia's steel industry, after a Senate committee was told lives are at risk because imported steel is not meeting high enough standards.

The Welding Technology Institute (WTI) told the committee that public infrastructure, including a bridge in Western Australia, was unsafe because of imported steel.

"From our best estimate, talking to our members, something like 75 per cent of the steel imported into this country — fabricated steel — doesn't meet Australian standards," WTI's Geoff Crittenden told the committee earlier this week.

"So if you were to go to fabrication shops in Darwin at the moment, you'd find their yards full of modules that have come in from Korea.

"They, having been inspected, are going to the shop, they're cut up and they're re-welded.

"It's because we find that there are silicon welds in structures — a silicon weld is where you tack two ends of a run, and you fill it with [a product called] No More Gaps."

There's an inevitability that someone's going to get killed because something is going to fall apart that shouldn't have fallen apart.

Geoff Crittenden, Welding Technology Institute

Mr Crittenden told the committee it was a safety concern.

"In Western Australia there is a bridge which we've inspected … [that] runs between a primary school and a high school and in our view, and in the view of all the technical experts that have viewed it, it is unsafe," he said.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon asked Mr Crittenden if he thought it was "dumb luck" that there had not been a major accident to date.

"We're seeing huge amount of steel and fabricated steel that doesn't meet the Australian standard," Mr Crittenden replied.

"I wouldn't say it was dumb luck, I would say that most of the industry is aware that there are issues and they're looking out for them.

"But in my view, and I hate to say this, there's an inevitability that someone's going to get killed because something is going to fall apart that shouldn't have fallen apart."

Audio: Listen to Louise Yaxley's report (The World Today)

Mr Crittenden told the Senate committee that there was no regulatory process to check on imported steel.

"We don't have any regulations which determine whether some thing is safe or not," Mr Crittenden said.

"There are some pressure vessel inspection regulations, but … we rely on engineers signing off on bridges, on structures.

"Engineers aren't always qualified in welding processes, they rely on the fabricator to ensure that … the structure is made to the appropriate Australian standard.

"If it's made overseas, it quite often isn't."

Steel industry in 'war for survival'

Adam Stingemore from Standards Australia told the committee that his organisation welcomed its efforts to gather evidence of danger.

"One of the great things that this committee could do would be to get the primary evidence," Mr Stingemore said.

"So in order to be able to deal with an issue you need to be able to see a circumstance, which you could then sort of act on that."

Mr Crittenden backed a call from the Australian Steel Institute for a royal commission.

"From our perspective I would support that request, senator," he told the Senate committee.

"I have been preaching for the last 12 months that I think that we're in a war for survival and we need all the help we can get.

"I mean, seriously, within five years we might not have a steel industry or a fabricator in Australia."

The Federal Opposition has been relying on the evidence about imported steel as part of its argument that the Government should use domestically produced steel in infrastructure projects.

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend