With the rapid development of the chemical industry in our country, the application of stainless steel pipes has become increasingly widespread, with the domestic stainless steel pipe market growing at a rate of over 10% annually. At the same time, sectors such as oil, natural gas, and petrochemical refining are also performing well. Although there is significant bearish pressure on crude oil prices at present, a future rebound is bound to be more intense, propelling the recovery of these sectors further.
In terms of application, the outstanding performance of stainless steel seamless tubes is primarily reflected in their high yield strength and excellent resistance to stress corrosion, along with superior weldability and low sensitivity to cold and hot cracks during welding. In Japan, 54% of the pipeline systems in petrochemical work utilize austenitic and ferritic stainless steel welded tubes. However, in China, stainless steel welded tubes are primarily used in the decorative field, and the corrosion-resistant welded tubes used in the petrochemical sector are still relatively weak. In terms of variety, standards, quantity, and quality, domestic stainless steel lags behind in meeting market demand and in comparison with the national industrial technology level.
Detailed insights are as follows: In terms of quantity, the output of conventional stainless steel welded pipes has far exceeded the overall market demand, exacerbating the supply-demand矛盾. Meanwhile, high-demand materials, particularly industrial-grade materials such as high-pressure stainless steel boiler pipes, are domestically lacking. Specifically, the production of conventional small and medium-sized diameter stainless steel welded pipes is excessive, while the supply of large diameter, high-demand stainless steel pipes cannot meet market demand, resulting in significant shortages, such as extra-large diameter stainless steel welded pipes with φ530mm or more, which still rely on imports to meet domestic demand. For ultra-long pipes (over 15m), domestic production is rare, largely depending on imports. In terms of variety, compared to advanced industrial nations, China's stainless steel pipe variety is limited, with high-tech content types almost non-existent, such as duplex steel, Hastelloy, etc. Some stainless steel pipes with high technical difficulty and quality requirements, such as heat exchanger pipes for power station boilers and urea pipes for fertilizer equipment, still primarily rely on imports. Additionally, stainless steel pipes with superior corrosion resistance are also rarely produced domestically, with imports dominating the market. In the oil and gas industry, which is one of the primary applications for duplex stainless steel, the domestic production of stainless steel pipes is limited to only a few in the South China Sea Oilfield, with imports accounting for the vast majority.
Additionally, the domestic production of stainless steel pipes for LNG pipelines has largely been completed, with 20,000 tons of production capacity at Jiuli Tecai (002318) meeting the domestic demand. In the refining industry, the company utilizes domestically produced duplex stainless steel, which is widely applied in the top layout of atmospheric and vacuum distillation towers (or composite panels), internal structures, air coolers, and water coolers at refineries in Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Tianjin, Jinan, and elsewhere, some for over 20 years. In terms of producing small-standard duplex stainless steel seamless tubes, the domestic self-production ratio has been increasing year by year. The urgent need is to address the production of larger-standard seamless tubes and welded tubes, as the production technology needs further development. However, Wujiang Stainless' 700mm production line has already entered the debugging phase and will be able to fill the market gap for seamless tubes in the future.
Moreover, reducing the cost of stainless steel pipe products is crucial for advancing the domestic production technology of dual-phase stainless steel. Of course, expanding output value and producing marketable goods are important, but under the chaotic overall industrial structure and the reduced risk resistance of enterprises in the country, it is evident that cost reduction is more conducive to the growth of enterprises. Currently, popular methods include using molybdenum disulfide balls instead of metallic molybdenum, using nickel oxide instead of metallic nickel, reducing production costs, promoting the use of stainless steel pipe continuous casting technology, and improving the yield.
If our country can vigorously explore the industrial applications of duplex stainless steel, advance the potential markets between military and civilian sectors (such as in construction—construction, bridges, reinforced steel for concrete; in manufacturing—containers, tanks, chemical transport ships, speedboats, tanker trucks; and in household equipment—high-rise water tanks, electric water heaters, residential plumbing systems, etc.), and develop, test, and promote some new types (such as low-nickel economy stainless steel pipes) that are suitable for our national conditions (where nickel and chromium are scarce), it is believed that China's stainless steel pipes have a very promising future in terms of application.
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