Recently, the Wenzhou Administration for Industry and Commerce organized a special quality monitoring campaign for steel rebar in the circulation sector in Rui'an, Pingyang, Taishun and other areas, sampling 17 batches of steel rebar products sold by 6 entities. Upon inspection, 13 batches were qualified and 4 batches were unqualified (see table for details), with a batch qualification rate of 76.4%. Next, the Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce will successively publish the test results for other home decoration and building materials such as faucets, flooring and ceramics.

　　The results of this steel rebar quality inspection show that all four unqualified batches had chemical composition failures. Chemical composition problems generally involve excessively high carbon content, which increases the brittleness and hardness of the rebar while reducing elongation, cold bending performance and weldability. In addition to failing on chemical composition, one batch also failed on dimensions and mechanical performance indicators. The dimension and weight deviation issue mainly manifests as the measured weight of the rebar being far below the national standard requirement, with negative deviation values more than five times the limit. The main cause is that enterprises attempt to reduce the quality of steel rebar products so that their measured values approach the lower limit of the national standard, thereby maximizing profits. Nonconformity caused by weight deviation often means the rebar dimensions are undersized, so the load-bearing area of the rebar in a building is smaller, making safety accidents more likely than with rebar products of adequate quantity.

　　For this reason, the Consumer Protection Sub-bureau of the Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce issued a consumer warning: production enterprises should conduct in-depth analysis of the characteristics of building materials products and the causes of quality problems, implement countermeasures, and rectify and improve. To ensure the quality of steel rebar, operating procedures must be strictly followed, and products may enter the market only after passing self-inspection or commissioned inspection; engineering construction units and consumers should promptly understand and grasp information on such commodities when purchasing, carefully check the supplier's qualification certificates and commodity quality certificates, and engineering builders should also properly obtain and retain certificates and invoices; if counterfeit or inferior building materials are found during purchase or use, engineering construction units and consumers should promptly report them to the relevant administrative departments and actively cooperate with investigations.