Development of pipeline steel at Baosteel over the last 20 years

This study reviews the development of Baosteel’s pipeline steel over the last 20 years.Energy demand accelerates the development of high-grade pipeline steel as well as modern petroleum and natural gas pipeline construction.Pipeline steel is a kind of typical modern microalloyed steel produced via thermo-mechanical controlled processing.The development process of pipeline steel at Baosteel represents the course of the technological progress of pipeline steel in China.In the last two decades,Baosteel’s pipeline steel has been developed from a single product of hot-rolled strips to a variety of products including hot-rolled strips,heavy plates,high-frequency electric resistance welded (HFW) pipes and U-ing-O-ing-Expanding(UOE) welded pipes.Moreover,the proportion of the HFW and the UOE welded pipes has been increasing year by year.UOE longitudinal submerged arc welding(SAW) pipes have become the leading product of strategic significance in Baosteel’s pipeline steel family.Over the last 20 years,Baosteel’s pipeline steel products have shifted from "ferrite+pearlite" X52 to "acicular ferrite" X70 and X80,and Baosteel has developed hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) resistant pipeline steel.Baosteel’s pipeline steel products have been applied in variety of geographical areas,including deserts,Gobi,mountains,plains as well as the ocean.And both the X100 and the X120 ultra high strength pipeline steels have been produced on a trial basis.Baosteel has accumulatively produced 6.5 Mt of pipeline steel for both domestic and overseas projects.Baosteel will continue strengthening its strategic cooperation with oil companies,and conducting research on ultra high strength pipeline steel,pipeline steel for strain-based design and submarine pipeline steel,etc.,so as to meet the need of construction in the future.