Local steel producers are confident the Bureau of Customs will not allow the release of 5,000 metric tons of allegedly deformed steel following a request for another testing and sampling of the imported product.
The Philippine Iron and Steel Institute asked the Bureau of Customs to allow a complete inventory, a thorough investigation and testing of physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the steel products to determine if they conformed to the Philippine quality standards.
The group in a June 21, 2106 letter addressed to Customs Commissioner Alberto said it would press the government to ban the entry of the controversial deformed reinforcement steel bars (rebar) shipment.
“We woudl like to request your office for an endorsement to formally witness the 100 percent examination and subsequent sampling of the alerted shipment,” the letter read.
PISI said the shipment was misdeclared deformed steel bars worth $330 per MT compared with the current price of $380 to $410 a ton.
PISI president Roberto Cola said the declaration on the import entry was in direct violation of Customs rules requiring specific description of imported articles in tariff terms.
“These discrepancies would already constitute as technical smuggling, thus we further recommend your office to issue a warrant of seizure and detention,” Cola said in the letter.
The group commended the bureau for upholding the alert order on the shipment based until the case was fully investigated.
The bureau recommended a 100-percent re-test of the shipment, after the first quality review was deemed compromised for lacking a witness, preferably the presence of a local industry expert.
The alert order on the shipment cannot be lifted “until a 100 percent physical examination has been conducted,’ Colad said, adding “public safety requires due diligence”.
The shipment consignee, Mannage Resources Trading Corp., is a first-time importer of steel products. The company is an importer of food and food-related products based on its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The shipment, with an estimated cost of P95 million, arrived at the Port of Subic mid-April 2016 without the proper logo and import commodity clearance certificate.