TPI November 2020

Our teams were quick to adapt to digital tools and ensure our customers continue to be well serviced and engaged, even during lockdowns in various regions. We ensured that customer deliveries were least impacted during this phase, with well-coordinated cooperation between various stakeholders. Our continued effort to strengthen our footprint regionally, our global footprint and local presence, helped us navigate through the lockdown during this phase and has helped ensure minimum supply chain disruption to customers. Our portfolio innovation initiated earlier has helped sustain our differentiation, enabled our customers to increase their productivity, and strengthened our contribution towards green fuel transitioning which has been accelerated during this phase. This pandemic has taught us to be agile and flexible, and has highlighted the need to be resilient and plan ahead to be prepared to handle such situations in the future. How do you see the tube and pipe industry (or your specific sector of it) changing over the next five to ten years following the global recession? What do you think the industry can learn for the future from the past few years? The tube and pipe industry is currently experiencing a slowdown as a consequence of the pandemic and due to the dip in the oil prices and drop in demand for refined products. There will be postponement in CAPEX in downstream segments in the near term, which will lead to a reduced outlook for our industry in the immediate future. However when taking a longer term view, the future of the market is a positive one, with organisations transitioning towards green power generation with a focus on renewables, petrochemical, industrial plant processing, and automotive industries running on hydrogen and other clean alternative fuels. This shift and the acceleration of the pivot towards energy technologies of the future is an inevitable outcome.

We also see a trend towards the use and adoption of higher- strength materials as oil companies are using higher-yield- strength materials to allow them to deal with increased operating pressures. These higher-strength materials also allow tube and pipe manufacturers to decrease wall thickness, which in turn lowers production costs, while still maintaining the performance and reliability of the tube and pipe. Another trend is the industry placing greater emphasis on the integrity and safety of operations. This, in my view, will align and resonate with companies like Sandvik who invest in R&D and place so much emphasis on materials technology and manufacturing processes to produce products better than what is required by industry standards for safe operation in critical services around the world. The development focus will have to be on remaining longer term trends in industry with emphasis on sustainability as a pivot in this transformation. What advice would you give to someone trying to make it in the tube industry? If a student or young person wanted to get involved what should they do? It is fundamental to understand and familiarise yourself with the processes of all the segments in the tube and pipe industry. The key to thriving in this industry is to keep up with changing consumer requirements and focusing on truly catering to their needs to create value. Keeping abreast with technological developments, understanding industry shifts and trends which can transform and unlock growth, and to be able to adapt, to upgrade skills and knowledege to an ever changing environment is essential for development.

Sandvik Materials Technology India www.materials.sandvik

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TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL November 2020

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