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Baosteel Completes First Lot Supply of Heavy Plate for Queensland Pipeline
Jul. 20, 2010 The first lot of 11,500 tonnes of heavy plate for UOE pipe of Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline project recently entered the last pipe-making process at Baosteel.
All products are qualified, having been tested by the foreign supervision team. Baosteel says that it has overcome the rolling difficulties in the mass production of this pipeline steel and has laid the foundation for the final output of finished steel pipes and subsequent mass supply.
Baosteel in March won the bid of the Australian Queensland Curtis LNG pipeline project and became its sole supplier. It will supply 200,000 tonnes of high-grade X70 steel line pipe. This marks the most steel Baosteel has ever supplied to a single project of engineering pipes.
The company also notes that the technical conditions put forward by the customer are “extremely harsh,” requiring thin plate specifications, strict composition control, high internal quality requirements of the billet, and narrow finish rolling temperature control range of the plate. Queensland Gas Co. sent supervision teams formed by the project company, BG oil company experts, and CNPC Tubular Goods Research Institute to supervise the total process of steelmaking, steel rolling, and steel inspection and analysis.
Baosteel established a steel plate R&D team in March to help fulfill the task of steel rolling in line with the technical and supervision requirements. From late April to early June, the process was found to be “unstable,” and controversial results of the macro metallographic test of slab were raised by the foreign supervision team.
Baosteel says it then carried out sufficient discussion, comparison, analysis, and finally identified the steelmaking and steel-rolling process.