Warships Compromised: Faulty Aluminum Imported from China Identified as Culprit
“It was made in China” is a phrase that is often used to explain why something is shoddily made, or cheap.
The Royal Australian Navy is now experiencing this firsthand after getting poor-quality aluminum from China, which is now prohibiting the launch of new patrol boats.
In March, shipbuilders announced a delay due to the botched materials, which are believed to have been sourced from Wuhan, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Austal, the shipbuilder company awarded a contract to supply the navy with six vessels, said that “the aluminium had been independently certified by a globally accredited certification company prior to arriving at Austal,” according to the ABC.
#AusNavy‘s Armidale Class Patrol Boat, #HMASArmidale patrols the coast of Honiara as part of Whole of Australian Government effort to support the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force to stabilise the security situation in the Solomon Islands. ???? #YourADF #OurPeople @dfat pic.twitter.com/m3JVEykDyp
— Royal Australian Navy (@Australian_Navy) December 10, 2021
But upon checking the aluminum, a company spokesperson it was problematic.
“A random spot check subsequently conducted by Austal indicated that it did not meet Austal’s quality requirements,” the Austal spokesperson said.
This will cost the Australian navy tens of millions of dollars since it will now have to keep its older fleet working. The ABC estimated that it will cost an extra $44 million to keep the old fleet afloat.
China’s faulty materials are now costing everyone in Australia.
“As always, taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for their stuff-ups, and our Defence personnel are left without the capabilities they need, when they need it,” Shadow Assistant Defence Minister Pat Conroy said, according to the ABC.
It should come as no surprise that China’s materials are lacking in quality. This year, China has been struggling with its aluminum production and has scaled it back in many ways.
As China has supposedly tried to scale back on energy consumption and emissions, the aluminum industry was one of the first to suffer, the South China Morning Post reported.
This spiked prices to a 13-year high. It also, apparently, made quality plummet.
Australia should have taken the crises in China into account before ordering supplies for their navy from the communist nation.
Besides the fact that Chinese aluminum is obviously lacking quality, there is also a good possibility that forced labor was involved in the production.
China has continued to make headlines and has been repeatedly reprimanded for its abuse and enslavement of the Uyghur people and other minorities in the Xinjiang province.
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that a major Chinese aluminum company, along with many other major corporations, was tied up in these human rights abuses.
Xinjiang’s Yarkand County signed a “labor export cooperation framework agreement” with the East Hope Group Xinjiang Aluminum Company, the Times reported.
China continues to show the world that its manufacturing and its ethics cannot be trusted. Australia is simply finding this out the hard way.
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