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More than automotive: new dimensions, new coatings in carbon steel tubes

Cristiano Rocchi, Marcegaglia tube division

More than automotive: new dimensions, new coatings in carbon steel tubes - Cristiano Rocchi, Marcegaglia tube division

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Good morning.

My name is Cristiano Rocchi, export sales manager of Marcegaglia tube division.

I am here with my colleague Julie Ingram, sales manager of Marcegaglia UK.


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We will present an overview on our carbon steel tube production from a European global perspective, then focusing on our latest Italian investments and on our British manufacturing unit.


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First of all, I wish to draw your attention on the data on the screen here.

The estimated steel tube production within the European Union by the end of 2011 is set at 14.7 M tons of which 9.9 M tons of welded tubes and 7,47 M tonnes of small welded (under 406 mm diameter).

This means an increase of about 6,5% on 2010.


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During last year, in most EU countries, output has continued to expand at a healthy rate, supported by rather robust activity levels in the key downstream tube-using market segments, with a slowdown by the end of the year and mild prospects for 2012.


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Focusing on applications, the automotive sector has shown mixed results, with total sales of passenger cars down 1.7% if we consider Europe’s total, but Germany registered growth, with an export increase of 7%.

Commercial vehicles sales - instead - continued to show a very positive trend, with a 10% increase all over Europe.

The total output in 2012 is forecast to remain stable at 2011 levels, before growing again in 2013.


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On the other hand, activities in mechanical engineering in 2011 - within the European Union - has surprised, with a 10% increase compared with the previous year.

If we look at the European construction activity, it remained slow in the second half of 2011;

But we saw a yearly total increase of 2.9%, even if there have been huge differences between depressed areas - such as Southern Europe - and others more active.


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While keeping its attention on the European - and the world - scenario, Marcegaglia has brought forward its latest program of investments, in Italy, in Europe and worldwide.

One of our strong points has always been the extremely high diversification in tube products, - from commodity and construction, to precision and automotive tubes, down to refrigeration tubes - and this is keeping us relatively safe from the ups and downs of markets.


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Tube production has always been our core business. In more than 50 years of our history we have continued to expand in new ranges, new dimensions, new qualities and new coatings.


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And - speaking of carbon and stainless - our global output of tubes is forecast to reach a total level of 2.400 thousand tonnes by the end of 2013, meaning 900 thousand tonnes more than 2010.

Limiting to Europe, we forecast a total level of 1,7 million tonnes, always including all grades.


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Marcegaglia carbon steel tube production is spread worldwide, with 12 plants in Italy and 5 abroad, equipped with a total of 150 production lines.

Since the 80s, we have expanded our carbon steel sales network throughout Europe, mainly from Italian production, then from the UK, and today Poland, China and also United States are adding to that expansion.


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And - especially because we worked very hard to export the same know-how of production to all our people and to all our factories, we can say that tubes from each plant - in Italy and abroad - come from the same knowledge base, the same quality state-of-the-art procedures and the same sourcing system of pre-materials, as we do since many years in our Italian Headquarters.


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You can see here our production network.

This gives us the possibility to be near to our markets on three continents.


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Focusing on our presence in Italy, and our most recent and most important investment in carbon tubes, let me illustrate the features of our production centre in Casalmaggiore.

The plant is located very near to our Headquarters, and spreads over 162,000 sqm of covered surface - within an overall area of 320,000 sqm.

Before the upgrades we had a yearly output of about 400,000 tonnes.


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Previous equipment included:

8 tube mills,4 slitting lines 2 furnaces for heat treatment4 straightening lines6 cut-to-length facilities.


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The plant has evolved through the years, to become our most dedicated centre for tube making and finishing for the steel construction industry on one side, and for the most sophisticated precision industrial applications on the other; So - starting from carbon steel hot rolled coils, processing strips for cold forming of welded tubes and hollow sections.


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In 2011 we have completed a massive expansion of the the production surface.

This enlargement is bringing the plant to increase its manufacturing capacity up to 700,000 thousand tonnes.


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New equipments include:

a new slitting line for coils up 16 mm thickness

3 brand new tube production lines, adding new dimensional range capacities up to 406 mm diameter and 16 mm thickness

a new, high capacity normalisation furnace

and a fully automated warehouse for tubes


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And – we should not forget – the new roofing is made from a steel insulated panels cover with integrated solar cells;

A system engineered by Marcegaglia own photovoltaic systems division, that can generate 2.1 MW of electrical power.


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I wish now to focus briefly on these latest additions.

The 3 new tube mills (3 - 8 and 16 inches) allow to add speed, capacity and quality standards to our product range, as well as larger tube size.

Let’s have a look to the new lines.


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The 3 inches line production has been dedicated mainly to tubes for steering systems and other automotive components, such as axles and beams or stabilizers,

but also what we call “boiler tubes”, that is tubes for pressure purposes according to EN 10217.

The line can process tubes up to 6.6 mm


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The 8-inches line production is dedicated to heavier applications, for example axles for industrial vehicles, or components for tilt trucks - or roller conveyors where there is need for specific restricted tolerances, but also steel structural works, such as piling, and also district heating.


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Of course all these lines have in-line non destructive controls, but - very important - 100% inline control of outside diameter tolerance, thanks to our own engineered system of laser gauge.


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And we come to the machine for very large diameters: the 16 inches production line, welding tubes up to 16 mm, dedicated to heavier structural applications, piling and district heating tubes.

On the 8 and 16 inches line we also have the possibility of normalization treatment of the welding area.


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In Casalmaggiore we have also have started a completely automated state-of-the-art warehouse that gives the possibility to store and prepare bundles to be shipped avoiding any manual operation inside the loading bays.


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The storage area spreads over 14 aisles:

3 dedicated to 3 inches products

5 dedicated to 8 inches products

and 6 dedicated to 16 inches products.

This installation has hugely improved our storage efficiency, and makes extremely easy to arrange and compose our deliveries.


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Then we have a new normalisation furnace for tubes, probably the world’s largest installation of its kind - with a capacity of 16 tonnes per hour for annealing.

Thanks to this new furnace, in addition to the other two already installed in Casalmaggiore, the plant total capacity of annealing is reaching 200 thousand tonnes per year.


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And - let’s not forget - the new slitting line, which of course is at the start of our process, that can cut until 16 mm thickness and has an automated system to change the sets of cutting blades.


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If we speak of quality, apart from system certifications, the plant has

ISO TS 16949 certification for the automobile industry

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TÜV - PED certifications:

And AD 2000 - Merkblatt WO with TüV Rheinland


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as well as

certificates conform to W4 according to PED directive.

And also CE Homologations of standard grades and micro-alloyed grades.


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So now what’s next -- for our carbon tube range?

We often say that “growth is our obsession”.

This means not only the consolidation of current markets, but also a constant increase in terms of new opportunities, always maintaining the highest quality level.


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I believe that our peculiar feature of “Regional global player” that covers the complete first transformation within the productive chain can lead us to new perspectives.

We can reach now an important presence on verticalized products (hot rolled pickled, cold rolled and sendzimir galvanized products) and increase further our presence in special sectors like automotive and high wall hollow sections (square and round)


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But this applies also to district heating tubes and mother tubes.

Thanks to the new investments, we can say to have now completed the production program (from 4,76 until 406 mm outside diameters, and from 0.3 to 16 mm wall thickness).


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And the carbon steel tubes network - as shown before - gives us the possibility of new services, timings and assistance to our customers, being closer to them, dealing more and more with global purchasing systems.

In addition to that, we still work to develop new products and new solutions: it is the case of Marcegaglia UK, and my colleague Ms. Ingram is now going to explain more of that.

Thanks for your attention.

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