Embarrassed by the increasing frequency of foreign news reports about the questionable safety of its exports, China has been trying to engage the US in a tit-for-tat over product safety, claiming that many US manufactures also suffer from safety issues. Now we have Chinese officials charging General Electric of manufacturing turbines that are, ah, unsafe at any speed. To say that I am skeptical about GE being guilty of making substandard products in one of its bread-and-butter product lines would be an understatement. From the Financial Times:China charged on Thursday that imported gas turbines made by General Electric, the US industrial institution known for its exacting manufacturing standards, had “big safety and quality problems”.
Officials at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which polices imports, said at a press conference in Beijing that repairs had been needed on GE turbines imported before May 2006.
The agency’s complaints coincided with increasing tensions, and tentative co-operation, between Washington and Beijing over complaints from the US and Europe about potentially harmful Chinese imports.
The complaints have centred on the quality, safety and hygiene of Chinese products ranging from fish to children’s toys, with the import of some products being blocked and others recalled by manufacturers.
An official at the quality agency, who declined to be identified, denied that the criticism of GE was politically driven to counter complaints about Chinese products from the US.
The agency said some of the 24 GE turbines “had caused several big accidents, which not only have brought serious economic loss to their users, but also threatened the safety of electricity grid and supply”.
GE had repaired some generators but the problems had persisted this year, the agency said.
In a statement, GE said there had been three forced outages at the Baochang power plant in Shenzhen within the last 14 months, all of which were addressed by GE working with the customer, and that the units involved were back in service.
“There have been no other issues at the Baochang power plant reported to date. The outages did not present a safety risk to the operators,” the statement said.
“GE has 1,200 (of these units) installed around the world operating at over 99 per cent reliability.”
Chinese companies make few gas turbines and most electricity is generated using coal. GE, with Siemens, has large joint ventures in China manufacturing power equipment for coal.
Following US and European complaints, authorities in southern Guangdong province, where most of China’s toy exports are manufactured, had been conducting “a lot more tests” for lead paint in the past month, said an official at the state-authorised Guangdong import and export toys inspection centre.
“It should be related to the recent recalls,” said the official.
The increased testing activity appears to be in response to a directive issued by the national product quality regulator on June 21, mandating stronger quality control procedures at the provincial level.
Provincial governments were instructed to establish taskforces to monitor substandard companies and allow them to export toys only after product safety was improved.
Chinese customs officials have also stepped up spot checks of toy shipments, according to a sourcing executive at a European toy manufacturer.
Late last month one of his suppliers was asked to produce safety documents for a shipment of toys. “It was the very first time this has happened to us,” said the executive, whose company and customers conduct their own spot checks on toys sourced in China.
