Establishing compliance of steel mill products : a comparison between Australian steel standards and the corresponding American standards

![CDATA[Australian steel Standards have stringent requirements in regard to product conformity. According to Australian structural steel standards, the acceptance of steel is conditional on the evidence of compliance provided in rigorous mill test reports/certificates. Also, Australian structural steel Standards have a mandatory Appendix in regard to product conformity which has been recently supplemented with a scheme for the certification of products by the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council Inc (APCC) and the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ). By comparison, the corresponding American steel Standards are industry voluntary standards unless they are cited in government regulations or in a contract. Various industries stipulate mill test reports or reports of tests made by the fabricator or a testing laboratory as evidence of conformity with one of the relevant industry standards such as ASTM, ASME, AISI, SAE and API. However, product conformity is supported by a rigorous legal framework noted in the contracts rather than the product standard. Australian Road authorities need to be familiar with the differences between the Australian and American approach to product conformity in order to comply with the obligation of “duty of care”. A breach of which could result in legal liability.]]