“It was made in China” is a phrase that is usually used to explain why something is poorly made, or cheap.
The Royal Australian Navy is currently experiencing this firsthand after receiving poor-quality aluminum that was made in China, which is now preventing the launch of its new patrol boats.
In March, shipbuilders had announced a delay because of the botched materials, which are thought to have come from Wuhan.
Austal, the shipbuilder firm awarded a contract to provide the navy with six ships, said that “the aluminum was independently certified before arriving at Austal,” as reported by 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 inspecting the aluminum, a spokesperson for the company said it was problematic.
“A random spot check that was conducted by Austal had shown that it didn’t meet Austal’s quality standards,” the Austal spokesperson stated.
This will cost Australia tens of millions of dollars because it will now have to maintain its older fleet and keep it working. The ABC estimated that it could cost an extra $44 million to maintain the old fleet and keep it afloat.
Should any manufacturing company from China be trusted?
China’s bad materials are now making everyone in Australia pay extra costs.
“As always, taxpayers are made to pay the bill for their mess-ups, and our Defense personnel have been left without the capabilities that they need,” Pat Conroy stated, according to the ABC.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that China’s materials are not good quality. This year, China has been having difficulties with its aluminum production and has worked to scale it back in a lot of ways.
As China has supposedly tried to reduce its emissions and energy consumption, the first to suffer was the aluminum industry, the South China Morning Post said.
This increased prices to a high not seen in 13 years. It also, apparently, made the quality plummet.
Australia should have factored in the crises in China into their decision before ordering the supplies for their navy from the Chinese.
Besides the fact that aluminum from China is obviously lacking in quality, forced labor was probably involved in its production.
China keeps making headlines and has been continuously reprimanded for its enslavement and abuse of the Uyghur people and other minorities within the Xinjiang province.
Earlier this year, The NY Times reported that a large Chinese aluminum business, along with many other large corporations, was linked to these human rights abuses.
China keeps showing the world that its ethics and its manufacturing can’t be trusted. Australia is just finding this out the hard way.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
