Product Description

Sumitomo Metals is at the forefront of the Japanese seamless pipe industry, and Japan is one of the three main global supply bases for seamless pipes. Aside from seamless pipes, the Company also produces wide-bore welded pipes and electric-resistance welded pipes as well as other tubes and pipes and regards its operations in this sector as one of its flagship businesses. Used by constructors of offshore oil wells, our seamless pipes occupy some 10% of the global export market for such products. In the seamless pipe business, the Company's Wakayama Steel Works is equipped with a brand-new and highly advanced medium-bore seamless mill, the best in the world, which uses our proprietary high-cross-angle, cone-type piercing process. In 1999, the mill was directly connected to a new steelmaking shop, making a reality the world's first truly straight-line operation from steelmaking to continuous casting, mill rolling, heat treatment, and final inspection. The Wakayama Steel Works can boast quality and productivity levels on a par with those of any similar steelmaking facility in the world. Because of these achievements, purchasers around the world have been persuaded of the merits of the Company's products, and Sumitomo Metals is able to export its high-quality tubes and pipes worldwide. The long-term supply contract for line pipes and oil well pipes concluded with BP (formerly BP Amoco plc), of the United Kingdom, is an excellent case in point. The Company's UOE wide-bore welded pipes have been deployed all over the world in oil and natural gas pipelines, and major orders have been received in connection with a new Russia-Turkey pipeline project. In the domestic boiler tube market, Sumitomo Metals has approximately 80% of the market for the main tubes of thermal power generation plants and for boiler tubes used in large-scale industrial projects. Our electric-resistance welded pipe sector has been integrated with the operations of Sumitomo Pipe&Tube Co., Ltd., which commenced operations in July 1999, and, by means of this and other measures, the Sumitomo Metals Group as a whole is building an unshakably robust structure for its tube and pipe business. Abroad, too, Sumitomo Metals is equipped with strategically located production bases in every corner of the globe-pipes and tubes for structural use in machines are made by Thai Steel Pipe Industry Co., Ltd., in Thailand and Seymour Tubing, Inc., in the United States, and in Saudi Arabia, National Pipe Co., Ltd., produces line pipe for crude oil and freshwater transport. and in China, Baoji-SMI Petroleum Steel Pipe Corporation was established in December 2000.

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