Market flooded with substandard angle bars

MANILA, Philippines - Local manufacturers have asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to look into the rampant selling of substandard angle bars in the provincial areas to safeguard the welfare of the consumers,

Ma. Victoria C. Padilla, executive director of the Philippine Product Safety and Quality Foundation (PPSQF), said several test-buy operations conducted by monitoring teams of the industry have confirmed that more than 50 percent of the hardware stores in the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna and Batangas are peddling substandard angle bars.

“Gathered facts from the above-mentioned private test buy operations clearly showed that the marketplace is flooded with uncertified/substandard angle bars, and some of the hardware stores are found to be repeat offenders,” Padilla said in a letter to Undersecretary Merly Cruz, head of the DTI-Regional Operations and Development Group. Out of 30 stores that were monitored in Bulacan, 20 were found to be selling substandard angle bars.

In Laguna, of the 15 stores that are selling angle bars, 10 of them have substandard angle bars. Two of these violators have already been issued Notices of Violation by the market composite market monitoring teams of DTI-Region 4-A, PPSQF and the Steel Angles, Shapes and Section Manufacturers Association of the Philippines Inc. (SASSMAPI) in 2010.

In Batangas, of the 24 hardware stores visited, 12 carried uncertified angle bars. The substandard angle bars do not carry the required logo markings identifying their sizes and manufacturers or importers.

Padilla said some are also being sold at prices considerably lower than the prices quoted by local manufacturers, so “these are obviously substandard and smuggled angle bars.” Padilla furnished Cruz with the list of the hardware stores that are violating the provisions of the Philippine National Standards on steel angle bars.

She also asked the DTI to visit the stores to verify the findings of the market monitoring teams and take appropriate actions against those that are selling uncertified angle bars, especially the second offenders.