Worldwide Interest for Corrosion Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States

10/20/03

The 2001 report on corrosion costs in the United States has drawn worldwide interest in nearly every industry. Corrosion costs U.S. industry and government agencies an estimated $276 billion/year, according to the study by CC Technologies for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This is reason enough for many production and manufacturing companies, transportation organizations, public utilities, infrastructure developers, and government departments to take a closer look at where all this money goes.

Responses to the study were received from groups based in the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Argentina, India, Japan, South Africa, Venezuela, and China. The major interest was found in the following industries: paints, coatings and linings, plating and surface finishing, powder coatings, plastics, composites, flow control, water conditioning, water distribution, heating, fabrication, machinery, product finishing, pipeline, chemical processing, paper, aviation, automotive, nuclear and fossil fuel power, oil and gas, concrete, roads and bridges, ports, business and management, and public works – engineering, construction and maintenance.

The study is published by FWHA in a 773-page hardcopy (FHWA-RD-01-156) and a summary was presented in a 17-page tech-brief. All study results are also available for free at the web site www.corrosioncost.com as downloadable files. To draw attention to the work, NACE International (The Corrosion Society) prepared a news release and distributed a supplement with the Materials Performance magazine. As a result, more than 40 journals and magazines published the results, reaching a combined distribution of more than 1,200,000 readers. Another 30 organizations contacted NACE directly to receive more information about the study.

The results of the cost of corrosion study have been presented to industry and government at various conferences, including the Transportation Research Board, the 52nd Sea Horse Institute Meeting, the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association 31st Annual meeting, the Department of Defense - Tri-Service Corrosion Conference, the NACE International Corrosion Conferences, NACE Western, Eastern, and Northern Area Conferences, NACE Section Meetings, and ASME Section Meetings. And in November 2002, the CC Technologies cost of corrosion study was featured in a Pat Summeral Success Story that was broadcast on the CNN Headline News Network.

ASM International acknowledges the economic importance of corrosion in design in the newly revised Corrosion Handbook Volume 13A. The ASM handbook includes a chapter dedicated to corrosion costs, explains the methods used to estimate costs, and highlights the findings of the CC Technologies study.