Jiuli: Committed To Satisfying Your Requirements: by Sjef Roymans and His Team
Jiuli: Committed To Satisfying Your Requirements: by Sjef Roymans and His Team
Jiuli: Committed To Satisfying Your Requirements: by Sjef Roymans and His Team
cover story
Welded pipe.
Walking past the raw material stock and adjoining billet preparation area, we arrived in time to see the hot extrusion facility in full swing. This technically demanding production process was extruding stainless steel pipes, just when we visited, for a major order, awarded by Saudi Aramco, with individual lengths of around 12 metres each. Down stream of the hot processing area, we passed through the cold finishing lines of pilger mills and entered the Quality Control area. Not surprisingly we could observe the latest inspection technology being used besides eddy current and ultrasonic NDT, examining with an endoscope the inside surface of a bundle of 14x2x18,500 mm tubes. Packing and shipping takes up a surprisingly small area, as Jiuli produces only to order and avoids tying up money in inventory on the shop floor. Next we visited a further brand new 40,000m workshop dedicated to cold finishing seamless pipes and tubes, only a hundred metres further down Main Street of the production complex. The new pilger equipment was in the final stages of installation and nearing operational testing. A new bright
s t a i n l e s s s t e e l w o r l d s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8
19
cover story
Boiler tube.
Endoscope testing.
annealing furnace, has started trial production runs already. The schedule for this new workshop is set to be in full production by the end of 2008, providing a substantial increase of capacity, matching the press out put of mother tubes. As a consequence lead times will become more flexible and closer to just in time, to better service customers. Jiuli, rather casually explained at this point, that this investment gives them the added capability making 32 metre long tubes, critically important for U tube type heat exchanger applications.
cess helps both parties to build confidence. I have a good example: Saudi Aramco kicked of qualification of Jiuli in 2007 and awarded approval to us. Shortly there after we received an order for some 20,000metres of pipe and that was just meant to be an industrial size trial order. Meanwhile Jiuli claims good business relations with many of the leading EPC companies like Fluor, Aker Solutions and Toyo, and entered into strategic cooperation agreements with many others. Great progress, it is reported to us, has been made in the refining, petrochemical, chemical, shipbuilding and pulp & paper sectors, having received qualification by operators and owners. For the next stage, Jiuli is actively planning to develop in the market segments of up stream oil and gas, LNG, nuclear power generation and sea water desalination. It was mentioned, that Jiuli has just been awarded a 5 million Dollar order for welded pipe, with wall thicknesses of up to 50 mm, for a North America LNG project. Jiuli has accumulated extensive experience with domestic LNG projects, including three LNG Terminals and two gas liquefaction plants. In the nuclear power industry, the company has supplied seamless and welded stainless steel pipes for 5 domestic nuclear power plants, and U-type feed water heater tubes to Korea. Stainless Steel World has been informed during the visit, that a welding line for Titanium tube has been commissioned and started up for trial runs. This product rounds off the tubular program of Jiuli, used in flue gas condensers and sea water desalination plants. Jiuli provides such a wide range of goods and services for so many different clients, do you recall any particular events, which impressed you the most? we asked. Mr. Lee answered without hesitation: Lots of them were impressive, but I would like to bring up two of them: In 2006, MGM was on a stateside project and in urgent need of very specific stainless pipes, no where to be found at distributors and asking for a delivery time like tomorrow. MGM approached Jiuli, consulted with McKinsey on
w w w. s t a i n l e s s - s t e e l - w o r l d . n e t
20
s t a i n l e s s
s t e e l
w o r l d
s e p t e m b e r
2 0 0 8
cover story
contractual issues, negotiated non stop with us and finally signed a contract. Our people managed to get hold of the raw material and seven days later, 17 tons of pipe were delivered by air across the Pacific. The client was highly satisfied. Another case, with Sinopec, comes to my mind. Earlier this year, they required around 2,000tons seamless heat exchanger tubes (19x2x13000-17000mm) for a critical project. We had our shop fully loaded and offered to supply 8001000 tons only within the time acceptable to them. They convinced us to commit to 1,500 tons and, we managed to get the order delivered in time. One thing is for sure: going the extra mile for a customer will be remembered by all the parties involved.
invested 4.5 million Dollars on eliminating what they refer to as the Three Big Wastes or contaminants: waste vapors, waste fluids and waste residues. The result is virtually Zero emission and total recycling of residues. The cooperation and support by Shell, BP and others encouraged Jiuli to achieve better HSE management. The company is qualified to ISO 14001 and OHSAS18001, continuously monitoring and improving performance. The aim is to make sure the environment is protected and employees work in safe and healthy conditions while the business grows.
Health-safety-environment
There are two big ponds located to the East and the West of Jiulis Balidian seamless pipe plant property, cultivating fresh water fish and pearls. Both are in top condition because Jiuli
w w w. s t a i n l e s s - s t e e l - w o r l d . n e t
s t a i n l e s s
s t e e l
w o r l d
s e p t e m b e r
2 0 0 8
21