Lee Brankley is chief executive of the Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels
It will have barely registered on the screens of brokers trading amid the relentless global movement of rebar, but the last rites have finally been read to firms using “potentially false” steel paper trails.
An arm of the United Nations, no less, has just delivered its terminal verdict on paper-based or electronic formats such as PDF. Diehards insist on retaining them but are ignoring overwhelming evidence that digital solutions hold the only secure route to safety-critical product assurance.
“There is now even less wriggle room for subcontractors bent on gaming systems”
Despite truly transformational progress – it is now possible to see the full back story of each batch of rebar with just a smartphone swipe – some remain resistant to change.
Well before the word Covid entered everyday use, eagle-eyed clients and audit teams were noticing a rise in ‘anomalies’ or ‘data errors’ slipping into certificates attached to batches of steel products.
The outcome of a lengthy investigation by the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business is unequivocal: its 66-page report, published by the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe, warns that the risk of manipulation of documents gives rise to “potentially false assurance for purchasers and regulators”. Data-based solutions are vital, it says.
The timing of the UN’s verdict represents another uncomfortable moment for those who still place commercial advantage over transparency in construction supply chains. In the wake of the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, there is now even less wriggle room for subcontractors bent on gaming systems that are not contractually watertight. This is even harder to do when the smartphone screen sets out the transparent truth of safety products’ provenance.
As well as Grenfell and the UN, there’s a third game-changing dynamic at play here, which few could have foreseen in the race for greater market share in big steelmaking nations: the role responsible clients play in driving change.
They’ll receive no credit, but private and public sector project sponsors increasingly demand rigour in sustainability assurance. Face value counts for nothing against genuine concern over carbon emissions and a warming planet. In turn, this is driving fundamental change in the way consultants set out product specs. Procurement teams respond with requests for ever-greater detail; those who simply generate a document containing unverified claims are running out of road.
Pandemic paved the way
Covid was an opportunity to move to wholly digital operations. Companies that did this and weathered the upheaval would have found it was worth it. Having a digital ecosystem gives full product provenance from steelmaking through to fabrication, and then on to site delivery. Digital traceability provides the assurances that clients rightly demand.
Additionally, working more closely with policymakers to shape the sustainability frameworks clients demand, particularly in high-profile public sector infrastructure projects, can increase transparency throughout the sector.
The search for continuous improvement in quality, safety and accuracy of sustainability metrics is best conducted in partnership. The shared goal of traceable outcomes for end users is critical when products on which lives may one day depend are hidden from view, once the concrete is poured and that final bridge span has slotted into place.
Global trading routes – being increasingly complex, occasionally sanctioned or even hostile – carry countless challenges to clarity in steel supply chains. These issues must never be allowed to become opportunities for those who put commercial gain above product safety. With unstoppable change now underway, we can finally build confidence in shared data for a future with safer steel.
