wiredInUSA June 2020

Demand for umbilicals set to fall

Third order for rod mill

Image courtesy of Danieli

Vietnam’s largest steel producer, Hoa Phat, has ordered a one million tonne per year wire rod rolling mill from Danieli. The mill is Hoa Phat’s third to have been ordered from Danieli, and will be installed at Hoa Phat’s Dung Quat facility. Fed by 12m-long, 150mm square billets produced by the upstream Danieli continuous casting machines, the new mill will produce 5.5mm to 25mm diameter wire rod coils, in low-, medium- and high-carbon grades. The rolling line comprises a high speed free-rougher followed by an intermediate mill rolling on two strands. Bars continue on two independent rolling lines made of pre-finishing cantilever stands, followed by ten-pass wire rod blocks using semi- multidrive technology for improved rolling ring management. Product quality is monitored in real time by Hi-Profile measuring devices, while water cooling lines installed before and after the fast finishing blocks, together with the 95m-long cooling conveyors, provide the final mechanical characteristics according to the differing sizes and steel grades.

Photo by Luiza Braun on Unsplash A report from Rystad Energy, an independent energy research and business intelligence company, has said: “The COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effect on global energy investments is set to damage subsea purchases, with demand for umbilical lines expected to fall by 32 percent to just 713km of lines in 2020, down from 1,041km last year. “Umbilical demand will not match or exceed 2019 levels until after 2023, our forecasts show, despite definite cost savings in materials. …Before the pandemic, demand for umbilicals was due to slightly decrease this year compared to 2019, but to rebound and exceed last year’s levels from 2021 onwards. “Without accounting for the negative impact of a global economic downturn, we see a cost reduction of approximately 5 percent taking place from 2020 to 2022 within the umbilicals segment. If, on the other hand, both the global recession and oil and gas industry downturn take place simultaneously, our outlook will change drastically. We then estimate a cost reduction of almost 14 percent over the same time frame.”

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wiredInUSA - June 2020