British steel producers association UK Steel says that it has concerns over the quality of some rebar imported into the UK. The association has discovered non-compliance with British Standards in samples of rebar said to originate in China, it confirms in a statement seen by Kallanish, and has reported this to UK CARES.

The UK CARES (Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels) scheme is an independent, not-for-profit certification body. It was established in 1983 to provide confidence to the users, purchasers and specifiers of constructional steels through a regime of regulation, testing and inspection.

Earlier this year in March and May UK Steel highlighted issues with traceability of material sourced from outside of the EU. Product traceability is a key element of the CARES approval system, UK Steel confirms, and says that it has urged that the CARES scheme be “robustly” policed.

At the beginning of August UK Steel discovered further evidence of dimensional non-compliance in imported rebar. Following independent testing, it was found that some rebar samples carrying the mark of China’s Jiangsu Shagang did not conform to the surface geometry requirements of standard BS 4449:2005.

UK Steel director Ian Rodgers said: “Coming on top of the weak link in the CARES traceability regime relating to imported rebar, it is now becoming increasingly clear that there are risks in using non-European rebar. We suggest that fabricators and contractors should test any non-EU rebar they have in stock – and particularly Chinese rebar - to ensure that it is fully compliant with the British Standard.”

UK steel has now reported on its evidence to CARES which is currently “… testing further samples of Chinese rebar that we [UK Steel] have provided to them”, the steel association confirms.

CARES has 241 companies on its approved list including 6 from China, amongst which is Jiangsu Shagang Group Co. Ltd. 110 UK companies have CARES approval but of these only one is classed as a billet manufacturer, Celsa Steel UK based in Cardiff. The rest are processors, traders and distributors which gives an indication of the size of the policing task facing the certification organisation.