Chinese Steel: Inferior

April 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Inferior Steel imports from China that fall apart easily are making U.S. manufacturers and constructions firms more than a little nervous. Reports of failures during initial fabrication and questions about certification documents will mean closer scrutiny.

The biggest concern is hollow structural sections widely used in construction of skyscrapers, bridges, pipelines, office, commercial and school buildings. This high-strength steel is also commonly used in power lifts, cranes, farm equipment, furniture and car trailer hitches.

Failures of this “tube steel” has already happened in several California schools

Chinese high-strength steel tubes and pipes are also a potential problem. They’re used extensively in power plants and in large industrial boilers, and must withstand enormous pressures and hellish heat around the clock for weeks or months on end. This kind of steel also is used extensively in scaffolding that’s erected on building exteriors during construction or renovation, as well as for interior work.

Inferior high-strength steel could cause catastrophic failures of buildings, pipelines or in power plants’ boiler tubing. This is a large worry for structural engineers who will be working overtime as states embark on what amounts to a crash program to shore up bridges, following the collapse of the Minnesota span over the Mississippi River. China is already seeing problems. A Chinese power plant exploded recently when high-strength steel tubing blew out, says Roger Schagrin, general counsel for the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports, which represents U.S. manufacturers of these products.

The following from the Shanghai Daily

HALF the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests.
The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau inspected 52 batches of steel material at three markets and 15 construction sites in seven districts, including Xuhui, Zhabei and Baoshan, and officials said 27 batches had quality problems.
The tested materials were too light to reach the country’s standard - some of the products were five times lighter than the required weight.

About 22 percent of the tested products failed tension tests. Buildings with such steel would not be able to withstand major earthquakes, the bureau said.
Forty-eight percent of the tested material had inadequate amounts of carbon. Shortage of carbon can cause steel to break easily, officials explained.

Bear in mind this point folks:
The US is importing a lot of cheap inferior Chinese steel, up from almost nothing a couple of years ago. The importers include the US government!

First it was food, then toys, then medicine, now steel. Greed has taken over throwing reason and common sense out the window.

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Posted by TBM | Filed Under Blog, Free Trade, Greed

Visit Tijuana: Get Shot

April 29, 2008 | 1 Comment

Major gun-battles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down streets of this violent border city last Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine

21 vehicles ( some with US license plates) were confiscated by police,some riddled with bullet holes. Also found were over 50 guns and over a thousand shell casings.

With major violence occurring in other border towns, Juarez with over 200 murders since the beginning of the year and the previously mellow small town of Palomas erupting in gun fights Mexican Border Town Violence: Palomas just what are these open border advocates thinking? I guess they want the violence to cross the border and have the fights in the streets of our towns.

It would be great if all of these advocates went to Mexico and cleaned up there own backyard before demanding open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.

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Posted by Paul Kay | Filed Under Blog, Crooks, Security

Obama The Elitist

April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

It looks like the “change” word has taken on a different meaning in Obama’s campaign. Change now meaning it will only be for the folks who can afford to shop at Abercrombie and Fitch. Heck those folks don’t need change they are already in the elite in-crowd and there jobs are not being effected near as much by the greedy un-patriotic corporations and politicians as the blue collar workers are.

It seems Obama has pretty much alienated white blue collar workers with remarks like these.

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said. “And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.“

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Posted by Paul Kay | Filed Under Blog, Politics