The Hindu Business Line : Welspun-Gujarat bags Rs 500-cr National Iranian Gas order

WELSPUN-Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd (WGSRL), the Rs 815-crore submerged arc welded (SAW) pipes manufacturer, has won an order worth Rs 500 crore to supply 69,000 tonnes of coated pipes to the National Iranian Gas Company.

"This is the third successive order of more than $100 million that we have won in the last six months," Mr Braja Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, WGSRL told Business Line. The company had recently won an order worth $117 million for a US-based project.

The company is currently executing orders worth more than Rs 1,600 crore. WGSRL has the capacity to manufacture pipes around 1,000 km annually at its Dahej unit. The company can make pipes of diameter ranging between 16 inches to 60 inches.

Welspun-Gujarat is currently setting up a new manufacturing unit at Anjar in Gujarat at an investment of Rs 200 crore. The additional capacity will mean the company could produce pipes of up to 100 inches diameter. The SAW pipes manufacturer plans to add capacities of around 5,00,000 tonnes by the end of this calendar year.

"We should be able to run the Anjar plant at 75 per cent capacity by April-May next year," Mr Mishra said.

The demand for SAW pipes in the Oil and Gas sector is estimated around 17,000 km over the next five years. Of this, demand from the gas sector is expected to be 13,000 km. As for export markets, the demand is estimated to be 52,000 km over the next five years.

Pipelines provide a cheaper alternative to transport oil and gas with costs as low as Rs 1.30/km. According to analysts, this works out 50 per cent cheaper than rail and 70 per cent cheaper than road transport.