Imported steel from China to undergo product tests – DTI

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will conduct product testing on some 20,000 metric tons of imported steel from China brought in by Mannage Resources Trading Corp. (MRTC) to resolve an impasse regarding the quality of the shipment.

“The DTI will conduct product testing on the imported steel to ensure standard compliance and to protect consumers,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told The STAR.

He said this would be done because there were missing tags on the bundles, which prompted the DTI to question the origin of the steel products.

The DTI earlier withdrew a final Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) it issued on MRTC’s shipment which arrived last Nov. 4 at the Port of Subic where it remains held up until now.

But the DTI had conflicting findings regarding the shipment as DTI’s central office in Manila said almost half of the bundles of reinforcing steel bars imported by MRTC “had missing tags” which became the basis for withdrawing the ICC.

However, in a reinspection report dated Dec. 22, DTI Region 3 ( Central Luzon) said “all the bundles of imported steelbars placed in five mounds in MRTC’s warehouse had attached tags except for a few which were apparently detached due to transport, the movement of the product from the factory to the ship to the warehouse compared in the same manner as the product tags.”

The Region 3 inspection team also found that almost 100 percent of all bundles of 12 mm and 10 mm steel bars had attached product tags and the detached tags had been found present in the vicinity of the MRTC warehouse.

Apart from this, the team did not find any bundles of steel bars which looked different from the rest.

However, Lopez stressed that the DTI was merely prioritizing consumer protection and wanted to ensure standard compliance.

MRTC has already sought the help of President Rodrigo Duterte on the matter, saying the company suffered similar harassment during the Aquino administration.