Stakeholders Urge SON to Monitor Steel Bar Production
By Tunde Alao | 08 February 2016
IN line
with the passion for safe building industry, stakeholders have urged the
Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and other regulatory bodies to ensure
that production of reinforcement bars and steel in Nigeria complies with
prescribed standard.
Their call
came on the heels of depreciation of Naira, which they observed have not
impacted negatively on the prices of concrete reinforcement steel.
The
stakeholders in the construction industry, among them builders, building
material merchants and others, pointed out that two popular grades of locally
manufactured high tensile reinforcement steel bars (steel re-bar) in the
Nigerian building materials’ market, have been attracted stable price, despite
the downward in the Nigeria’s currency, vis-à-vis foreign currencies.
According
to them, price of the high grade H.T. steel re-bar has remained N140, 000 per ton
for the past four years while that of the low grade H.T. steel re-bar has been
hovering around N100,000 per ton for the same period. However, exchange rate of
Naira to 1 US Dollar was around N156 in 2012 while it is fluctuating around
N300 to 1 US D today, which informed the concern of the stakeholders.
Speaking
on the issue during the visit to some areas in Lagos Island where some
buildings were being inspected last week, Mr. Taiwo Chukwu, an engineer, who is
also the Coordinator, BCPG Yaba Cell, said the situation requires vigilance by
the building regulators.
Chukwu
said that imported billet or locally recycled scraps are the raw materials
being melted to manufacture the reinforcement steel bars used for construction
in Nigeria, but because almost 26 Rolling Mills in the country are not
functioning as expected.
“If the
cost of production has remained static in the 16 functioning out of the 36 Steel Rolling Mills in Nigeria, there would be no cause for alarm. But if the
cost of production has increased during this period, then it is interpreted
that the steel manufacturing companies either have very wide, flexible profit
margin or the steel quality has been compromised”, he argued.
Life
Patron, Nigerian Association of Artisan, Epe Local Government Division, who is
also Managing Director Segson Nigeria Ltd., a building materials dealer, Mr.
Segun Ogunade, said in order to determine the quality of reinforcement
available in the country, both chemical and mechanical tests would be required
to ascertain the quality of the steel re-bar.
He said
carbon, manganese, sulphur, phosphorus, copper, silicon, aluminum and nitrogen
contents at percentages that meet the specifications of the Nigerian Industrial
Standard (NIS) would make the re-bar acceptable for construction work. However,
such steel re-bar when subjected to tensile test must meet the specified yield
strength and percentage elongation after fracture”, he advised.
In his
comment, National Publicity Secretary, Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIOB),
who is also President, BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, wants the Standards Organization
of Nigeria (SON) to ensure consistent compliance to standards through quality
control or monitoring mechanism.
http://guardian.ng
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