One of my customers insisted on buying Chinese steel so I had to use it.
The yield strength is only 34 ksi (for the steel he was using) so the
savings may not be as good as it looks to the guy just buying on price
alone. Their W shapes are not the same as North American
shapes (or European also) so you can't compare them on price per pound
basis either. The publications (that were given to me) on their steel
are not as informative as ours, i.e. no J, Z, Cw, just area, mom of
inertia, section modulus, depth, width and thicknesses.
Personally, I wouldn't buy any of their stuff based on personal
experience - too many junky products. Back in the 70's, Hodgson Custom
Rolling (my brother's company) had a big job rolling a lot of W shapes.
Every so often one these beams would snap and you could hear it in the
office 75 ft away. The steel came from Canada, the USA, Japan and
occasionally Europe - no Chinese steel then. The fewest number of
breakages were Canadian, then American, then European and Japanese. I
am sure everybody has improved their steel since then, but I suspect
that the Chinese steel today would be at end of the list. And Canada
has stopped making wide flanges.
Hope this is helpful.
Gary
bill@polhemus.cc wrote:
>
> We've got an overseas job (so "Buy American" isn't an issue) where
> they're contemplating using structural steel from the Peoples'
> Republic of China.
>
> I'd like to know if anyone has any direct or indirect experience with
> use of Chinese-made steel. And please, I'm not looking for hearsay
> (heck, I could contribute that myself), but actual anecdotal evidence
> of problems (or sucesses) with its use. Specific details would be a plus.
>
> I know that a lot of foreign-made steel was problematic in the past,
> and I also know that the PRC hasn't got the best rep regarding quality
> control for a wide range of manufactured goods in the very recent past.
>
> But what I'm looking for is solid information.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
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