China Iron & Steel Association

A memorable achievement made during China's "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period is that the steel output exceeded 200 million tons and 300 million tons respectively in five years, making China the first country in the world with steel output exceeding 200 million tons and 300 million tons respectively. As China's steel industry is developing rapidly, its steel tube industry has also developed quickly and soundly.

1. Output and import & export volumes of China's steel tubes

For five years, China's steel tube output has been increasing very rapidly, reaching 26.1411 million tons in 2005 compared with 9.3376 million tons in 2000, an increase of 179.96%, of which, seamless steel tube has increased by 6.3222 million tons, up 152.40% while welded steel tube has increased by 10.4813 million tons, up 201.98% (See figure 1). According to incomplete statistics, China's designed steel tube productivity has reached 22.88 million tons, of which, the designed capacity of welded steel tube is up to 13.04 million tons while that of seamless steel tube is 9.84 million tons; however, the actual output has exceeded both designed capacities.

Figure 1: China's Steel Tube Output from 2000 to 2005 (Excluding the Taiwan region) (ten thousand tons)

Steel tube seamless steel tube welded steel tube

Imports and exports of steel tubes have also witnessed remarkable changes. The imported steel tubes in 2005 have increased by 425.2 thousand tons, up 64.55% over 2000 while exported steel tubes in 2005 have increased by 2.4376 million tons, up 402.18% over 2000. Since the two years of 2004 and 2005, China's annual steel tube exports have exceeded imports, in particular, the steel tube exports in 2005 have surpassed imports by 1.9598 million tons, up 180.81%. (See figure 2)

Figure 2 China's Steel Tube Imports & Exports from 2000 to 2005 (Excluding the Taiwan region) (ten thousand tons)

Imports exports

In the near future, demands of steel tubes on China's domestic market are subject to adjustments. While demands on common steel tubes will keep the current level with a tendency of reduction, demands on highly extrusion-resisting oil casing pipes, high-pressure boiler tubes used in thermal generator sets, tubes used in steel structure grid construction project, petroleum and chemical cracking tubes, mechanical tubes, special transmission pipes for oil and natural gas and petroleum chemicals, tubes for automobiles will maintain an upward momentum. In addition, market demands for big-caliber round tubes, square tubes and rectangular tubes for concrete filled steel tubes in construction projects are also gradually growing.

2. Technological equipment level of China's steel tube industry will be further improved

In these five years, China has built a number of steel tube production lines of internationally leading level one after another. In 2003, Tianjin Steel Tube Co., Ltd. built a ∮168mm retained mandrel unit composed of the world's most advanced three-roll tube mill (PQF), FQS extracting mill, cone roll piercing mill with guide disc and twenty four-stand stretch reducing mill, which is the world's first PQF unit. ∮340mm five-stand retained mandrel tube unit built by the Pangang Group Chengdu Iron&Steel Co., Ltd. and ∮273mm five-stand retained mandrel tube unit built by Valin Steel Group Hunan Heng Yang Steel Tube Co., Ltd. have been put into production in succession in 2005. These two sets represent an internationally leading level of the world's seamless steel tube machine set at present. A good many automatic control hardware and corresponding software have been added to these sets, enabling a rather high level of automatic control for the whole continuous hot rolling mill. Meanwhile, some steel enterprises such as the Baosteel have consecutively built and put into production several ERW610mm and ERW630mm welded tube machine sets, also representing the advanced level of big-caliber HF welding production line. Currently, China possesses a number of various advanced seamless steel tube units which can be acclaimed as the top of the world in terms of their quantity and complete range of models. These sets are of high automatic control level and provide complete online testing methods. Advanced welding machine sets have covered three major categories in the world: longitudinal submerged arc welding machine set (LSAW), longitudinal electric resistance welding machine set (ERW) and spiral submerged arc welding machine set (SSAW). As technological equipment level of the steel tube industry is further improved, a good equipment foundation has been laid for development and production of a big batch of steel tube products with high technological content and high added value.

The development of technological equipments leads to teeming production techniques of the technologically advanced "short process" (i.e., Steelmaking (refining)-continuous casting tube blank-continuously rolling tube) in seamless steel tube enterprises. With qualities commonly approaching or achieving internationally advanced level, these products cover a wide variety of industries and fields such as petroleum, chemical, boiler, coal, automobile, ship, power station, military industry, aviation, aerospace, nuclear power and steel structure industry. A batch of anti-corrosion oil tubes of high grade and particular pipe thread have been successfully developed and applied in relevant oil fields. Meanwhile, seamless steel tubes and pipelines of X60 and X65 grade have also been applied in China's inland and offshore pipeline construction. In addition, a batch of steel tube products with high added value and technological content (E.g., boil tube of high steel grade, etc.) are being developed or in trial mass production.
Due to the upgrading of technological equipments, level of welded tube products has also been improved remarkably. For instance, in China's major "West-to-east Natural Gas Transmission" project, X70 spiral two-side submerged arc welded tubes are all made in China and Chinese products also account for a large proportion of longitudinal submerged arc welded tubes. Particularly, China-made X80 spiral two-side submerged arc welded tubes and seamless submerged arc welded tubes are adopted in a branch of the "West-to-east Natural Gas Transmission" project to pave a nearly 8km-long pipeline, which turns out to be a complete success. Besides, China-made X70 UOD welded tube won the bid in the International Tender for China Hainan Coastal Pipeline, and China-made ERW508 steel tubes were used as steel tube columns for the National Grand Theatre in Beijing.
Thanks to robust domestic market demand and rapid growth of domestic steel industry, China's steel industry not only ranks first in the world in terms of output, but also leads the whole world in terms of equipment and technological levels. In the following few years, China will continue to strengthen studies on production techniques and technologies and development of steel tube products with high technological content, so as to further meet the demand of domestic and international markets.

Output and Imports & Exports of Steel Tubes in the First Half of 2006

In the first half of 2006, steel tube output rose by 33.7% over the same period of the previous year to 17.1832 million tons, an increase of 4.33 million tons, among which, seamless steel tube output rose by 34.55% to 7.1354 million tons, an increase of 1.8323 million tons, while welded tube output rose by 33.09% to 10.0478 million tons, an increase of 2.4984 million tons.
In the same period, steel tube imports dropped by 4.19% over the same period of the previous year to 503.6 thousand tons, a decrease of 22 thousand tons, among which, seamless steel tube imports rose by 8.98% to 360.6 thousand tons, an increase of 29.7 thousand tons while welded steel tube imports dropped by 26.57% to 143 thousand tons, a decrease of 51.7 thousand tons.
In the same period, steel tube exports rose by 53.25% over the same period of the previous year to 2.2924 million tons, an increase of 796.6 thousand tons, among which, seamless steel tube exports rose by 62.82% to 1.0205 million tons, an increase of 393.7 thousand tons while welded tube exports rose by 46.35% to 1.2719 million tons, an increase of 402.8 thousand tons.
Also in the same period, steel tube exports surpassed imports by 1.7888 million tons, among which, seamless steel tube exports surpassed imports by 659.9 thousand tons while welded steel tube exports surpassed imports by 1.1289 million tons.

(Note: Steel tube situation and relevant data of China's Taiwan region not included in this article)