Regulatory failures and shoddy wires and cables at low prices

The Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce recently announced the results of monitoring the quality of wire and cable in the province's circulation area. In this year, 100 wire and cable products produced by 89 manufacturers were collected, and the pass rate was less than 40%.

Industrial and Commercial Bureau sampling inspection: the qualified rate is less than 40%

The Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce announced that a total of 100 wire and cable products have been sampled in the sampling inspection, involving 89 production units. Among them, unqualified items are: 20°C conductor resistance, insulation resistance, structure and size, insulation and sheathing before aging? After the hole? Snow tensile strength and elongation, sample length, signs, etc.

It is worth noting that the inspection also tracked similar products of wire and cable manufacturers that failed to pass the test last year. Five wire and cable manufacturers once again listed on the list.

The Quality Supervision Bureau of Guangdong Province pointed out that the passing rate of product quality supervision and spot checks is one of the important indicators reflecting the quality of a certain product in a certain area. The difference is due to the representativeness of the sample, the scope of sampling, and the sampling method. Big. In an exclusive interview with this reporter, the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision stressed that currently there are 165 wire and cable manufacturers in Guangdong Province that have obtained national industrial product production licenses, and 830 wire and cable manufacturers have undergone compulsory certification. From the overall situation, the quality of products produced by 995 legitimate wire and cable companies is relatively stable and the qualification rate is high.

The Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision provided a report to the reporter. According to the data, the reasons for the large difference in data between the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision come mainly from three aspects:

The first is that the sampling samples are not completely identical. The industrial and commercial departments are sampling in the circulation market. The spot checks include products from the province and products from other provinces that have flown into Guangdong. There may also be three products that cannot identify the place of production and the manufacturer.

The second is the range of spot checks. The quality supervision departments randomly selected 21 prefecture-level cities across the province; the industrial and commercial departments randomly selected three prefecture-level cities, namely Maoming, Zhanjiang, and Zhaoqing, with small sample coverage.

The third is that the sampling methods are not the same. The sample taken by the quality supervision department is a random sampling method; the product sampled by the industrial and commercial department is highly targeted, and the main product that is selected through visual inspection may be unqualified.

According to the reporter's comparison list, there were 13 unqualified products produced by 11 manufacturers in Foshan, including Leliu Town Xunheng Wire Factory in Shunde District of Foshan City. To this end, Foshan Industrial and Commercial Bureau in an interview letter to this reporter said that it has established a list of key regulatory targets for sampling unqualified products, and has already included the relevant unqualified information of Foshan manufacturers in the monitoring. Informed to Foshan Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision. However, as of the time of this reporter’s press release, the Foshan Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision has not yet given a reply.

Industry production levels are uneven

The Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision believes that companies that lack individual integrity will use counterfeit and inferior products to enter the market by illegal means, resulting in a lower pass rate for wire and cable products on the market.

In the inspection of Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, three products of Guangzhou Tianhong Wire and Cable Factory were found to be unqualified. Since then, Guangzhou Tianhong Wire and Cable Factory officially issued a statement on this matter, stating that the detected substandard product does not exclude other companies from producing fake products.

Wu Yunshan, head of the sales department of Guangzhou Tianhong Electric Wire & Cable Factory, was interviewed by this reporter, saying that because the manufacturer of the substandard product in the notification had the word “Tianhong”, as the famous manufacturer specializing in the production of wire and cable, the image of Tianhong was greatly affected.

“At present, the Guangdong wire and cable market is a mixed bag,” said Wu Yunshan. Tianhong has already sent product identification standards to dealers and organized them to learn, including trademark anti-counterfeiting and related identification of products, “to prevent them from entering the counterfeit goods again.”

However, Wu Yunshan also bluntly stated that the pass rate of wire and cable is too low, and even counterfeit products are rampant. In addition to the loss of profits by some manufacturers, dealers and even purchasers in the intermediate links also have certain responsibilities. The cost composition of wire and cable is not much different. However, the difference between the highest price and the lowest price of different businesses sometimes exceeds one time. "General manufacturers can not cut corners and offer prices will be much higher, so some of the market's low-priced products, quality is not off, and basically no technical content."

In Wu Yunshan's view, the low threshold of the wire and cable industry and the inadequacy of legislative supervision has directly led to the emergence of many “small workshops” for wire and cable at the “low-cost market” in the Pearl River Delta. The quality is difficult to guarantee, and the wire and cable market competition has thus entered a vicious cycle. .

“General civil wire product production does not require large equipment investment, and the production process is simple. The main cost lies in raw materials, ie plastics and copper (aluminum). Many small companies have a large number and the industry’s production levels are uneven.” Guangdong Inspection Institute of Quality Inspection Deputy Minister and Senior Engineer Lu Shengsha said that currently, the output of wire and cable in the Pearl River Delta accounts for about 20% of the country's total share. “From the sample inspection by the provincial Bureau of Industry and Commerce, the substandard products are basically 'home workshops' and small businesses. Or the quality of products produced by three companies without a company, and the quality of large and medium-sized enterprises, especially large-scale ones, can still be trusted."

Strengthen the supervision of production and terminal fields

In addition to economic losses, the safety hazards caused by substandard wires and cables are also worrying.

According to the rough statistics of the Guangdong fire department, more than 30% of the fires in recent years were caused by short circuits caused by unqualified wires and cables.

“Wires and cables with unacceptable conductor resistance and structural dimensions can easily cause fires during use. Products with unsatisfactory markings can result in mistakes in identification by construction workers and serious electrical accidents.” The bureau said.

"Some lack of credibility of production companies in order to reduce costs, the main means is to reduce the quality and quantity of copper, there are three ways, one is to directly reduce the cross-sectional area of ​​copper; the second is the use of low-quality copper, copper and low-quality copper for electrical use Up to 10,000 yuan / ton or more, spot check results show that conductor resistance products accounted for 58% of the total amount of failure to fully explain these two points." Lu Sheng pole said.

“Wire and cable, as a widely used electrician product, is directly related to the life and safety of personal and property, and has always been the object of major supervision by various levels of competent authorities. However, the quality of circulation is not ideal,” said Lu Shengsha.

For some manufacturing companies in the industry, there is a problem of “price-based pricing” rather than “price-based pricing”. Lu Shengsha stated that in addition to increasing penalties for illegal producers and leading consumers to increase awareness of quality awareness, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of distribution units and use the “backtracking system” to pursue illegal producers and strengthen the terminal field and production. The linkage of field supervision enables the “low-cost and low-quality” substandard products to have no foothold, and protects production enterprises and distribution companies that are honest and law-abiding, and maintain the healthy development of the industry.