A few days ago, good news came from Shougang Qian’an Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. and Shougang Jingtang Company: Shougang produced 21.4mm*80 pipeline steel and successfully completed pipeline steel production orders of the Sino-Russian East Line, which arrived in Sino-Russian East Line Natural Gas Pipeline Production Base; the product quality fully met the customer requirements and Shougang’s pipeline steel production and management accomplished new goals.

The Sino-Russia natural gas pipeline is a long-distance natural gas pipeline of the largest caliber and highest pressure, by China’s standards. The pipeline’s gas source is located in the Kovykta field in Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia and the Chayanda field in Yakutsk, Russia. As early as 2011, PetroChina proposed a natural gas pipe manufacturing program using 21.4mm*80 spiral submerged arc welded pipes. Compared to straight seam submerged arc welded pipes of the same level and thickness, the difficulty in pipeline steel development significantly increases. Shougang Qian’an Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. and Shougang Jingtang Company aimed at customer needs and have launched the first successful trial production of 21.4mm*80 hot rolled coil in China. The coil was able to meet the technical requirements of performance, filled the gaps and successfully passed the single furnace, kiloton and batch certification. In March 2017, the Sino-Russian Natural Gas Pipeline Project called for bids on 21.4mm*80 and Shougang won the high share of the bid during bidding.

This time, the thickness and specifications of X80 pipeline steel challenged the limits; the drop-weight test temperature of technical conditions dropped down from the original -15 ℃ to -20 ℃, and steel components and production processes needed to be re-designed and optimized. For this purpose, Shougang Qian’an Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. and Shougang Jingtang Company set up a research group. The Manufacturing Department of Shougang Qian’an Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. worked with technical research institutes, steelmaking, hot rolling and other departments to continuously improve and optimize a huge number of technical parameters and process operation points accumulated through systematic arrangement of the X80 production. They fully integrated special material performance requirements that were put forward in the pipe manufacture process of the Sino-Russia Natural Gas Pipeline Project, and developed a perfect test and production plan. The segregation for products in the steelmaking process below the 1.0 grade is 100%, and the pass rate of inclusions was 100%, which laid the foundation for the excellent low-temperature toughness of the coil. The hot rolling process ensured control over the key points of the process, challenged the maximum capacity of its equipment, successfully solved the problem of low-temperature DWTT stability and lead to the achievement of mass production of coil. The first-time inspection pass rate of coil performance and -20 ℃ drop-weight test has reached leading domestic levels in order to ensure the overall performance of the coil. The Hot Rolling Operation Department of Shougang Jingtang Company took the initiative and actively cooperated with the Manufacturing Department, the Steelmaking Department and other departments, to study the previous pipeline steel production experience and developed a set of production processes of X80 M pipeline steel such as billet heating, the rolling process, cooling method and coiling mode. They have organized more than 10 batches of production. The Hot Rolling Operation Department organized professional and technical personnel, and constantly optimized the heating process, developed stable rolling, as well as stable finish rolling and coiling temperature. At the same time, the function parameters of the coiler were evaluated and optimized to achieve effective coiler distribution, by combining the unique unloading process of the hot rolling process in order to improve non-strong coiler efficiency and production efficiency to protect each production.

Shougang’s pipeline steel is the iconic brand of Shougang’s product upgrading, which has won the national “Runner-up Prize for Metallurgical Science and Technology Progress”, “Metallurgical Products Physical Identification Gold Cup Award - Premium Quality Award” and “Metallurgical Industry Quality Excellence Award”, and formed three series, “the ordinary transportation category, oil casing category and anti-acid category,” achieved full coverage of the X80 and below, and made major breakthroughs in both X90 and X100 pipeline steel. The products are widely used in the West–East Gas Pipeline II, the West–East Gas Pipeline III, Sino-Myanmar pipelines, Shaanxi-Beijing Natural Gas Pipeline Phase IV and other domestic key pipeline projects. The market share is always among the top three in China. At the same time, Shougang’s pipeline steel is exported to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, South Korea, Lithuania, India, Spain, Greece, Australia and other countries and regions, and has a fine international reputation. The successful mass production of 21.4mm*80 pipeline steel marks a higher level of Shougang in the thick-walled high-grade pipeline steel production, and shows Shougang’s determination to participate in the future construction of key projects.