TISI to rule on steel standards

Between June 11 and 26, the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) made public its reconsideration of an end to the enforcement of steel standards, in order to gather comments from those who would be affected by such a move.

TISI secretary-general Pairoj Sanyadechakul said the committee had received comments for and against ending the standards.

Those against enforcement were Thailand's Iron and Steel Industry Club under the Federation of Thai Industries, the Council of Engineers, and the Engineering Institute.

Those in favour were steel importers and exporters of processed steel.

"The committee will make a final decision next Tuesday," Pairoj said.

Several options have been proposed. For example, the standards could be made voluntary instead of compulsory and steel importers could be regulated under the Engineering Council's laws.

Another proposal is that the TISI would review and revise some of the standards to make them in line with the latest technology regarding the steel industry.

He explained that the issue had arisen because steel users had suffered from a severe shortage of billet and scrap, which caused the steel price to double from last year. "We will also consider streamlining the approval process for importing steel in a bid to ease the shortage," Pairoj said.

Local steelmakers have a combined production capacity of about 25 million tonnes per year.