Maybe think twice before buying anything which involves Chinese Steel

My husband came home last night with his eyeballs out on stalks. He was informed by a source who has contacts in Rosyth dockyard where Chinese steel, used to build the new bridge over The Firth of Forth is being stored, is rusting ALREADY and the bridge hasn't even opened yet. The source reckons the bridge will be lucky to last more than 25 years. Thank god the much heralded at the time memorandum of agreement between the Scottish government and certain Chinese companies said to be worth 10 billion £s, (for what? we never found out as far as I am aware) seems to have died the death. No wonder there was hesitation about getting the Chinese involved with building a new Nuclear Power station in conjunction with EDF at Hinkley Point. Here's hoping the quality of that build is monitored to the minutest detail.

 

I'm pretty ignorant as regarding steel, but doesn't it rust quite readily when exposed to air and dampness?
I agree we should not be importing Chinese steel, but surely rusting is what steel does if its not protected.

 

Ordinary steel will rust very quickly when exposed to air and water, especially if there is any salt around. The quality of the steel will determine how uniform and how deep. It will certainly need treating and coating once in palace. As did the Forth rail bridge, hopefully not so often though.

 

When I worked for BSC in the seventies, steel came from the hotmill, where it was processed from ingots to sheet. It then went to the cold mill where it was rolled to the correct thickness. As it went through the mill it was lightly oiled. Once it was at the correct thickness it was moved to the slitters where it was cut to the correct width, again it was lightly oiled. Obviously, the coating of oil lessened the risk of rusting. Unfortunately our steel industry is now well and truly screwed.

 

Nope, I dont think we even make screws anymore.

 

Of course Admandii, though we call them nails.lol