Steel Tubes

Steel tubes

Seamless Tubes and Pipe Welding

Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Tubing Company to start construction of seamless pipe plant in 2017
Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Tubing Company plans to start construction of the seamless tube plant in Ras Al-Khair on Saudi Arabia’s Eastern coast in the beginning of 2017. The company has already received all required approvals from the Saudi authorities, the company representative told Metal Expert. The new plant will be equipped with a 600,000 tpy melt-shop, including EAF, LF, VOD and billet CCM for producing pipe billet and a 400,000 tpy tube-rolling mill. The product range will comprise seamless tubes and pipes with outer diameter of 19‑178 mm with wall thickness of 2.87‑19.05 mm and 5‑14 m long. The remaining 200,000 will be used to produce forged flanges and valves of all sizes. The commissioning is scheduled for late 2019. The company has signed the contract with Czech Republic’s Vitkovice in partnership with GTC for supplying a steel melt-shop, while SMS Meer (German) would supply tube-rolling mill. Slovakia’s BAT Engineering has been appointed as engineering, procurement and construction management contractor. The investments are estimated in some $1.2 billion. The construction of Gulf Tubing Company aims at reducing dependence on imports both within the country and MENA region. The plant will serve oil & gas companies, petrochemicals and mining to support domestic market.

• Seamless pipes and tubes are typically manufactured by following steps:
– Hot extrusion process of billets for formation of Hollows
– The extrusion billet is drilled a hole and is pushed over a die or mandrel, followed by air cooling or water quenching
– Additional cold working can be utilized to improve the mechanical properties and tolerances.
Seamless tubes have more homogeneous grain structure than welded tubes, thus ensuring zero leakages

• Welded pipes and tubes are typically made from sheets, and has following steps:
– Strip is first de-coiled to enable continuous tube production
– Cold forming is performed step by step from flat strip into a round profile and the edges are welded together as they approach the welding rolls at the welding station
– Modern weld lines are equipped with induction annealing to homogenize the weld with the tube to be structurally indiscernible
Seamless Welded