MRTC gets approval to sell imported steel from China

MANILA, Philippines - Mannage Resources Trading Corp. (MRTC) has been given the go signal to withdraw and sell to the domestic market some 20,000 metric tons of steel imported from China.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has cleared the products for release and sale.

In a letter to MRTC president Lawrence Daniel Sy, the DTI said the China-made steel passed all the stringent requirements of the Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC), an agency under the Department of Science and Technology which is tasked to develop and expand the metals industry of the Philippines.

DTI regional director for Region 3 Judith Angeles and lawyer Marimel Porciuncula, officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Product Standards said verification testing of the required samples showed compliance with the standard and there is no longer any basis for the recall/withdrawal of the Import Commodity Clearance (ICC).

“Hence its reinstatement is in order,” they said.

The DTI said results of the verification testing conducted by the MIRDC on the deformed steel bars samples of MRTC showed compliance with the requirements of PNS 49:2002.

As such, MRTC’s steel are guaranteed safe and reliable, effectively vindicating the company which consistently maintained that its products meet international quality and safety standards.

MRTC welcomed the reinstatement of its ICC as it thanked the DTI for doing its job of ensuring that imported products coming to the Philippines pass the necessary requirements.

“MRTC and DTI share the common goal of providing quality, safe and reliable steel products,” Sy said.

Last year, MRTC imported the deformed reinforcing steel bars from China but was unable to bring the shipment out of the Port of Subic despite compliance with all necessary requirements imposed by DTI and as well as the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS).

The DTI issued an ICC to MRTC in October last year which enabled it to lodge its import entry with the Bureau of Customs and pay P43.3 million in taxes and duties for the shipment.

However, on Dec. 9, the DTI ordered the withdrawal of the ICC, saying that more than 50 percent of the bundles of steel have no tags and that the steel bars were not in a covered area.

MRTC argued that no such provision in the rules and regulation of BPS required that steel products must be in a covered area.

Furthermore, the company said a unilateral recall of the final ICC violated DTI rules and the company’s right to due process.

Following an appeal, the DTI conducted another inspection on Jan. 23, while the MIRDC conducted another verification test from Feb. 13 to Feb. 17 that both yielded positive results.