Fletcher Construction is promising to use steel only from reputable overseas mills when it builds the Sky City Convention Centre in Auckland.
Photo: Wikicommons
Substandard steel, accompanied by wrong or faked test certificates has been imported recently.
Steel piles brought in from China for use in highway bridges in Waikato failed while being driven into the ground.
Fletcher is bringing in 8500 tonnes of steel through a fabricator in Thailand that is working with Whangarei firm Culham Engineering.
The construction company is using the same fabricator, Thai Herrick, to supply 6500 tonnes of steel for Auckland's downtown precinct.
Thai Herrick's other huge project, the Acute Services building for Christchurch Hospital, is using 6000 tonnes of steel from South Korea, Thailand, Australia and Indonesia - but not China - all within an elaborate quality control programme.
In Auckland, another huge steel building, a 50-storey apartment tower, was announced this month by a Chinese developer.