By bozaktwo1
Date 10-30-2008 16:21
Edited 10-30-2008 16:23
Buy American is also enforced by DFARS for federal acquisition and procurement. We regularly get contracts here with requirements for M&MUSA. But you see all the nations listed which are eligible. Now, some of our customers really mean it when they say MADE HERE, they mean the ore came out of the ground here, it was refined here, melted here, alloyed here, drawn here. However, those requirements are few and far in-between.
That is correct. It is not that non-USA steel is any better or any worse.
State Departments of Transportation get a huge amount of their project money from the Federal Highway Administration. Due to politics, or whatever (I suspect it is actually Union influence) , FHA has made "Buy America" mandatory and State DOTs must comply with FHA requirements or they don't get the money.
This is common for any bridge project.
We have recently seen "No China, No India, No Malaysia" material requirements on power/pollution control projects. I guess some folks have had a bad experience with materials from those parts of the world. I suspect that may be because the documentation cannot be trusted. "Cheap, black, & sinks-in-water" steel can easily become any material you ordered with the artful use of a computer.
We had an "A53 Grade B", 4" sch 40 pipe get accidentally dropped, about 2 feet onto a steel horse, and snap in two like it was made of glass. (Any A53 I've dealt with would have bent or dented, but not break) The pipe was made in....China.