Using European Steel in the US

[apetr26542]

Contacted by an Italian firm to oversee their design. They want to use European steel in the US. We will have to ensure the structure meets our codes. Is this permitted? Any one come across this situation before?

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Come across this situation before? Yes. We had a turnkey natural gas fired power plant constructed about 6 years ago. The contractor used metric steel from Europe - no problems. In this case, for that type structure, Building Codes were not an issue.

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[apetr26542]

My thinking is our loads in accordance with their stresses and design manual for their steel. I've seen others post about finding an equivalent ASTM steel. I suppose you could do that and then run the design through the AISC manual. I could see the latter causing conflicts, but I might rely on that to double check their stuff.

 

[JStephen]

Foreign steel is widely used in the US. In most cases, it's just produced to standard US sizes, and in standard US grades.

If they're using a product not covered by the design standards, that would be a different issue. But use of foreign material itself is no problem.

I'm assuming it is not for the Corp of Engineers or some other owner that requires domestic manufacture.

 

[BigInch]

Use the AISC design manual with US shape properties, they match them as close as possible. I've done it all over the world, using Japanese shapes, Euro shapes, Brazil whatever.

Going the Big Inch!

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