Establishing compliance of steel mill products: A comparison between Australian steel standards and the corresponding European standards

Steel bridge design as well as other steel structures design could be considered incomplete unless the compliance of the procured steel has been evaluated and determined through a method which is acceptable in accordance with the requirements of the relevant standard. According to Australian structural steel standards, the acceptance of steel is conditional on the evidence of compliance provided in the mill test report/certificate. By comparison, the corresponding European steel product standards include a more comprehensive section explaining the process of evaluation of conformity. This includes a normative section regarding initial type testing, factory production control as well as an informative section regarding a system of attestation of conformity by an approved body and affixing of CE marking on the product by the steel manufacturer. Also, there are provisions in Australian and European standards regarding the method of establishing compliance as the basis of design. However, a lack of adequate statistical data on overseas manufactured steels poses difficulties in the derivation of design values of material or product properties by testing.