Chinese Steel Quality??

[Fastpedeller]

Overheard today..... "My mate Nigel was saying the rolled steel from China is rubbish, as soon as it's welded it bubbles and makes holes". So is the foregoing statement true?, or is it an urban myth like "My mate's shed was being broken into etc..."

[kambites]

I'm pretty certain that the Chinese make both high and low quality steels.

[KarlMac]

Rod and box section we buy is fine. Less consistent in quality but fine.

UK/EU steel is equally as likely to be late/crap.

[lee_erm]

I guess they make steel to T45/CDS standard or beyond like we do over here. As well as much lower tensile steel too.

[gazza285]

It's no better or worse than our stuff, just cheaper. Most of the Shorpe plant is on the verge of collapse, it needs many hundred millions spending on it to bring it up to scratch, and who would invest in a plant that is making a huge loss, and will continue to make a huge loss for many years to come?

[BIRMA]

I would never buy anything from China again, I had agreed a roofing material with a Chinese company spec was supposed to be equal to what I was getting in the EU but quite a bit cheaper so I thought I'd try. What turned up was far removed from what it should have been and it was a case of talk to the hand when dealing with the Chinese company, in the end I sold it off to another company who were quite happy with the lower quality product. You get what you pay for and it serves me right.

[madbadger]

Welding issue is due to high (relatively) levels of boron.

Depends what you want to do with it.

[996TT02]

BIRMA said:

I would never buy anything from China again,

Haha, best become a cavedweller then, and forage...

[BIRMA]

996TT02 said:

BIRMA said:

I would never buy anything from China again,

Haha, best become a cavedweller then, and forage...

No just buy products from the EU.

[PhillipM]

Depends what you're using, if it's bought on price then yes, cheap EN8, En14, etc, tend to meet the spec with alloying elements whereas the better suppliers can meet it through grain refinement, which means it welds and machines much better.
But you can get the good stuff from china and you can get the st stuff from here...more a matter of buying price rather than quality.

[996TT02]

BIRMA said:

996TT02 said:

BIRMA said:

I would never buy anything from China again,

Haha, best become a cavedweller then, and forage...

No just buy products from the EU.

Yeah, like I-phones, televisions, cars (lots of made in china component sub assys nowadays on many brands), tools (including "GS" marked stuff that you may think made in Germany) food (you'd be amazed at where your "Italian" food comes from), clothing, well I could be here till tomorrow but don't intend to.

China produces whatever the buyer wants. If the buyer wants cheap junk the Chinese will oblige, if the buyer wants quality, likewise.

[Mr2Mike]

BIRMA said:

No just buy products from the EU.

Good luck with that if you want to buy any consumer electronics.

[t400ble]

BIRMA said:

I would never buy anything from China again, I had agreed a roofing material with a Chinese company spec was supposed to be equal to what I was getting in the EU but quite a bit cheaper so I thought I'd try. What turned up was far removed from what it should have been and it was a case of talk to the hand when dealing with the Chinese company, in the end I sold it off to another company who were quite happy with the lower quality product. You get what you pay for and it serves me right.

Good luck with finding stuff that isn't made over there.

[David87]

In the industry in which I work (not steel, mind) the Chinese stuff is mainly awful. HTH.

[R6VED]

I now work in the custom aluminium extrusion business - only the last 3 weeks mind.

I asked about the Chinese aluminium that we buy in and apparently the quality of that is the same as anywhere else we buy from, just cheaper. I have to say I was quite surprised to hear that bearing in mind all the talk of everything from China being crap.

[skyrover]

The Chinese are more than capable of making the good stuff.

J-20 stealth fighter... not exactly duct tape and bailing wire

[Kenty]

The last company i worked for had a power station built and the contractors used chinese steel, it failed all the quality control checks on the high pressure welded steam lines and had they to be replaced.
I don't know any more details than that, other than the completion date slipped 6 months.

[Bodo]

Everybody loves an anecdotal thread



And cyclists.

[robinessex]

Funny, but the bumper is PLASTIC

[leigh1050]

As others have said you get what you pay for.
In the late 70's when I was an apprentice British Steel was always going out on strike and as a consequence a lot of pipe was brought in from Europe. Most of the pipe was not up to B.S. and was absolute ste.