Almost 15% of products found substandard

The proportion of products checked by Shanghai's market watchdog last year that was substandard was 14.7 percent, with home appliances, agricultural production materials and children and students' products above the average rate, authorities said on Tuesday.

A total of 8,433 batches of products of 229 types were tested last year, involving 7,595 manufacturers and sales businesses, according to the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation.

Among them, items such as locks, water heaters and hangers had a substandard rate of 25.1 percent, the highest among 13 categories of commodities tested, followed by home appliances (18.6 percent), agricultural production materials (18.2 percent) and children and students' products (17.8 percent).

The rate was 14.8 percent for clothing and shoes, 14.6 percent for autos and auto parts, and 11 percent for information technology equipment.

Industrial production materials, labor protection articles, and hazardous chemicals and package containers had the lowest substandard rate, according to the administration.

The substandard rate of products from online channels was 22.4 percent, compared with 14.1 percent from offline, it said.

The substandard rate of aluminum products and containers for food use, gas water heaters and gas cookers grew over 30 percent from 2018, according to the administration.

Among the substandard, property problems accounted for 51.9 percent, followed by safety problems (33.8 percent) and labeling (31.6 percent), according to the administration.