Steel Plate Quality agains Price 2

[FrankGhana]

Hello Guys,
I have been tasked to order steel plates for some tank bottom plate replacement in ASME A283 Gr. C. We were looking at quality issues now. All mill certs are in conformance with our requirement, which makes ETA and price the next determining factor. The Cheapest we are getting are from Tianjin Steel in China but we can not guarantee their quality since this is our first time of getting a quote from China on such material. Please does anyone have some experience in using steels from such steel plants. This is giving us a half price advantage.

Thank you,
Frank

 

[metengr]

Better do your homework on this material source because any 50% cost savings will evaporate if poor quality product is supplied to you. Don't chase the dollars and evaluate product quality or find another source.

 

[granQC]

Hello!

No experience with Tianjin Steel (China), however I would like to recommend/point-out the following:

1) Is there any restriction by your Client to purchase from China Vendor/Manufacturer?
1a) If yes, I think you do not need to bother considering China Vendors.
1b) If none, I believe you need to still inform Client such shortlisted Vendor; and when you do this, you need to have documents/supporting documents why you chose this Vendor e.g. TBE-conformance with requirements, Experience List of this Vendor, Quality, Commercial, and/or Vendor Survey Report.

2) Why don't you restart your search of Vendor by checking with your Procurement group the Pre-qualified list of plate Vendors. The good thing for this list is that these vendors were already technically, commercially and quality evaluated and your Company has experienced dealing with them (not to mention, your procurement can handle the price negotiation). Or if there is Client's Vendor list, you may refer on it.

Ciao!

 

[EdStainless]

This happens all of the time, that is what vendor qualifications are for. So you need to add in the cost of the required audit/survey/inspections that are required to meet your quality system.
In our system there is no way to ever justify a new source for a one time buy, the QA overhead is too high even if the material was free.
You might want to also look at the risks, and try to put some costs to them.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[gtaw]

China has a well earned reputation for providing subpar materials. If you want a quality products from China, do your homework and do your own independent material testing on randomly selected samples for the product received. If the random sampling proves the materials are advertised, you have found a good supplier. If not, you just purchase a bunch of scrap. Just figure in the cost of performing the random material sampling as part of the cost of your purchase.

Best regards - Al

 

[BUGGAR]

"but we can not guarantee their quality ........"
I would hesitate to issue your firm any work orders.

 

[Duwe6]

CMTR's from China tend to be works of fiction. There is a good reason that that batch of plate is cheap!

 

[FrankGhana]

Thank you for your helpful information. I have looked at all these threads and I believe I can not equate the dollar to the material quality. I have been skeptical about Asian produce (even though some are made with strict quality control). This is an emergency buy, plus my procurement department is unable to get onboard old and accepted vendors to also quote (smell some foul play). Will get this sorted with my team and I believe we shall win. Cheers