The Iron and Steel Institute of Thailand will on Monday test the standard of more steel samples recently collected from the collapsed State Audit Office building, according to the Industry Ministry.
Pongpol Yodmuangcharoen, spokesman for the Industry Ministry, said on Sunday that the tests would be conducted on an additional 40 rods of eight types of steel that officials collected from the collapse on April 11.
“The priority is public safety. If manufacturers did wrong, they must be punished, lose their licences and have their factories closed,” he said.
Previous tests on April 3 found three types of steel at the State Audit Office site were substandard, he said.
Monday’s tests will happen on the same day that Xin Ke Yuan Co plans to hold a press conference on the standard of its steel products. The press conference will take place at Rama Gardens Hotel in Bangkok at 2pm on Monday.
On Sunday the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand urged the government to issue clarifications on the design standards for the new State Audit Office building, the engineers and architects responsible for the high-rise project and the standard of its construction.
The 30-storey structure collapsed on March 28 when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar.
On Saturday, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration reported there were 103 victims of the collapse. Of them, nine were injured, 47 were killed and 47 were missing.
