20 Jul 2009 09:18

China develops thick-walled seamless steel pipe extruder with world's largest caliber

Shanghai. July 20. INTERFAX-CHINA - China North Industries Group Corp. (NORINCO) has developed a ferrous metal vertical extruding machine capable of producing 36,000 tons of thick-walled seamless steel pipe per year, which has the largest caliber of its kind in the world, NORINCO announced on July 20.

The NORINCO machine completed a successful trial on July 16 and produced seamless steel pipe with a 0.7-meter diameter and a 0.2-meter thick wall.

The company's development of the new equipment will instigate a breakaway from China's dependence on high volumes of large-caliber, thick-walled seamless steel pipe imports, it said.

For the first phase of its project, NORINCO said it plans to establish a facility with production capacity of 50,000 tons of pipe per annum, which it will expand to 125,000 tons per annum at a later date.

A Mysteel analyst, surnamed Zhang, told Interfax on July 20 that it is generally expected that NORINCO will only produce pipe products to order, as such products are only used in certain industries, including large-sized and nuclear power plant construction and the petrochemical industry.

State-owned NORINCO produces vehicles, machinery, oilfield equipment, chemicals, explosives and blast materials, as well as civil and military firearms.

-GD