The Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) has held discussions on the quality of iron rods being used in the country.

This exercise was in collaboration with Fabrimetal Ghana Limited, a leading local steel manufacturing Company.

Stakeholders included Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), Engineers, Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Contractors, among others.

In attendance was the Executive Director – Ing. David Nyante, GhIE, President Elect, GhIE – Ing. Kwabena Bempong, and Ing. Asare Yeboah, a Past President.  

Ing. Joseph Oddei, Chairman for the Civil Technical Division, of GhIE welcomed stakeholders and provided the background calling for this discussion.

Ing Oddei pointed there were growing concerns about the quality of iron rods being supplied by the market. End users, especially engineers and architects, have identified quality issues such as iron rod diameter sizes and their respective tensile strengths not meeting design specifications.

Hence, the need to engage stakeholders and converge on the way forward. This discussion has become necessary because iron rods utilization form at least 15% of construction cost, poor quality of iron rods affects the structural integrity of structures and poor quality of iron rods cost more for clients or project owners.

Eric Gene, the Managing Director of Fabrimetal, told the stakeholders that the company does not compromise on quality of its products.

The company consistently strives to achieve excellence, maintaining focus on producing international standard quality high tensile FAB 500TMT® rebars at its manufacturing facility near Tema (BS4449/GSA/ISO/BUREAU VERITAS), Ghana. Economical and designed to increase the bonding strength between bars and surrounding concrete, high tensile FAB 500 TMT® rebars meet construction demands without compromising the environment.

With an installed capacity over 150,000 metric tons per annum at its local facility, FM Ghana offers an extensive inventory of competitively-priced steel rebars aimed to service the growing needs of construction companies, distributors, vendors, and individuals.

The GSA was represented by Ing. Adelaide Aikins. Ing. Aikin’s walked stakeholders through the process of getting a product standardized in Ghana.

She gave detail requirements on iron rods per the local standard document. These are requirements all local manufacturers, importers of the products including end users should know.

She also made the meeting aware that GSA has received such concerns under discussion and measures to deal with it are underway.

Ing. Oddei, presented a case study on 798 samples on iron rods collected for the past 6-months from the AESL – Geotechnical Laboratory. The nominal diameter of iron rods

Ing. Oddei stated that the analyses of the dataset were based on both the Ghanaian and British Standards. The outcome showed the following referencing to the two standards.

Table showing Analysed Dataset

Size, mm	Ghanaian Standard: GS 788-2	British Standard: BS 4449
Quality Index,	Quality Index,
Mass per meter length	Ductility	Mass per meter length	Ductility
Out of range, %	Out of range, %	Out of range, %	Out of range, %
8	29	10	40	21
10	12	11	26	20
12	14	25	23	38
16	15	17	16	23
20	17	17	21	26
25	4	26	4	14

The meeting implored the need to reduce these percentages to improve on the quality features of iron rods on the market. There was the general agreement that the public should request for the services of licensed professionals to supervise their construction projects. In addition, the public should ensure that the right questions are asked at points of iron rod supplies.