The thing that really scares me about things sourced offshore is the part you can't see. Meaning, you can generally look at a product and see if it's manufactured correctly from a machining, welding, and build quality standpoint, but you're trusting the supplier when it comes to metallurgy and heat treatment. And, many times material "certifications" from offshore are the same copy Xeroxed thousands of times--no actual testing has taken place.
I have experienced this myself with Chinese "4130" tubing. Bending 1-1/2" x 0.058" wall just works with domestic tube. Occasionally the inside of the bend will wrinkle a bit because the wall thickness is right at the point where it's too thin to do without a mandrel. A buddy brought over some Chinese stuff for me to bend, and it got to about 45 degrees and collapsed. I'm not sure exactly what was different, but it obviously wasn't as strong as what I was used to dealing with.
I've started paying more and buying from trusted suppliers to ensure things like 4130 tubing and fasteners are coming from domestic or trusted offshore sources for this reason. By trusted offshore, I mean companies with actual names in western Europe or Taiwan, not generic "China" or "India". Losing a race car because of a fastener or material failure is a hell of a lot more expensive than paying the extra few bucks for the good stuff in the first place.
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