The early introductions of steel pipe from China and Korea into the American market in the early 1980s was met with severe opposition by most piping steamfitters due to its generally lower quality, difficulty in cutting, welding and threading, and a greater rate of failure during hydraulic pressure tests.  This resulted in a prohibition of foreign pipe by many piping design engineers and a “domestic only pipe” clause in many piping specifications regarding the source of the pipe provided.  That prohibition still remains for most federal and state building projects.

Later, such restrictions were relaxed, although not due to any improvement in foreign pipe quality.  While some prohibitions still remained, the larger the project and the greater the savings provided by low cost foreign pipe products, the greater the probability of finding them installed years down the road.  Any large construction project is tracked in terms of the materials needed, and the larger the project, the more submission of lower cost foreign pipe from every corner of the globe.

Of course, absolutely no one will have any concern or opinion to the pipe installed until a premature failure occurs – at which time  the source of the pipe and the decision to allow its installation becomes a focus of blame.

Foreign produced pipe is still commonly found even where strictly prohibited; the result of lax supervision and inspection, or less traceable reasons.  In addition, the fact that most pipe stamps can be easily removed with acetone or paint thinner and then painted over with USA markings has produced a widespread counter fitting problem.

While not an absolute certainty, and even having documented old German steam pipe operating since the 1930’s in still pristine condition, the finding of foreign pipe today raises a red flag, or it should.  Identifying multiple pipe stamps from different countries, pipe from 28 different foreign countries as we documented in one specific investigation of a single property, further indicates that saving cost was a primary interest of the builder / contractor, and that it likely did not stop at lower cost pipe alone.

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