Steel & Tube Holdings will now only provide earthquake reinforcing mesh to the construction industry which has been verified by an external party.
The Commerce Commission is investigating Steel & Tube after it admitting selling “many thousands of sheets” of earthquake reinforcing mesh incorrectly labelled as being independently certified.
According to BusinessDesk, Steel & Tube admitted using the logo of Christchurch-based independent testing laboratory Holmes Solutions on its steel mesh for four years despite it not having carried out the tests.
BusinessDesk reports Steel & Tube’s in-house laboratory, which is not independently accredited by national accreditation body IANZ, had been used to verify the mesh.
IANZ accredits Holmes Solution’s lab.
Chief Executive Dave Taylor told BusinessDesk the company maintains confidence in its seismic mesh and is imposing dual testing to reassure customers.
“We wanted to provide our clients with the same assurances we have in our testing regime,” says Taylor.
We had been in discussions with our existing testing provider but due to delays, Steel & Tube had to have discussions and engage other external laboratories in carrying out testing and this has taken a little while,” he says.
Taylor says the company would only be selling mesh shown to be compliant by an external testing agent, and warns this may disrupt supply in the short-term.
Steel & Tube say despite laboratories testing against the same standard, there has been variability in the results, including in those provided by the Commerce Commission, as well as ambiguity about the interpretation of the criteria.
Taylor is calling Government to review the uncertainty around the standards.
“Given the ambiguity and interpretation encountered by Steel & Tube, perhaps it’s time to review the standards regime through the establishment of an Industry/government working group,” says Taylor.
The issue at Steel & Tube only came to light when two of Steel & Tube’s rivals, Euro Corp, and Brilliance Steel, were ordered to stop selling their steel mesh products as the Commerce Commission looked into whether the products complied with building standards.
