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covered by his doctrine “America First” to strengthen also the tra- ditional businesses such as steel, automotive and electrics. This can impressively be displayed by the US tube and pipe production gures (Figure 5). Due to trade sanctions and the support of the local oil and gas industry, the US tube and pipe industry is quite strengthening.
The US tube and pipe production has increased by 4.600 ktons (+60 %) since 2016, causing new investments in the tube and pipe industry and even tube plants which were previously taken out of operation were restarted for production. This trend may only be sustainable if the US based tube and pipe producers use this positive trend and invest in pro- ductivity and product quality oth- erwise this positive trend may end if the trade barriers will fall again. Anyway, still today some 7.000 ktons of steel tubes and pipes are imported to the US, which is in average still a high volume.
On the other hand, Europe and other regions also impose trade barriers to secure the national industry against imports from other parts of the world. There- fore, the tube and pipe market does need to cope with various political interventions which sometimes challenges strategical management measures.
The second important market with a market share of 15 % is the automotive market. Tubes and pipes with a diameter up to 90 mm are mainly applied.
Despite some weakness in 2018 and 2019, this market is charac- terized by a relative stable and high demand of +2 %. Due to the ongoing weight saving require- ment for cars, it can be expected, that tubes and pipes may be able
Figure 5: US Tube and Pipe Production 2016 – 2018 (ktons) Source: ITA tube Journal/Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahlrohre e.V.
Figure 6: Steel Tube Structures at Airport Building Source: Zekelman Ind. Atlas Tube
to even increase their share in car production.
The present trend to electro-mo- bility may have a negative impact on pipe supplies utilized for com- bustion engines. Still alternative drive systems represent a minor percentage, but the further devel- opment shall be observed.
As already displayed in the 2019/1 edition of the ITA Tube Journal, the regional sales gures are quite inhomogeneous. Coun- tries like Russia (+15 %), Brazil (+13 %) and India (+7 %) show further growth, whereas Japan overcompensates these growth gures and shows a decline of (-11 %). The largest world car markets, China, USA and Europe
are consolidating at almost “zero” growth. The automotive market, due to its technological require- ments is quite interesting for tube and pipe producers as well as tube and pipe processors.
The market of mechanical engi- neering for tubes and pipes, rep- resenting 9 % of the total tube and pipe market, is quite diversi- ed due to its uncounted appli- cations. ITA tube Journal 2019/1 highlighted the fast-growing hydraulic cylinder tube market.
In the ITA tube Journal 2019/2 I highlighted the ball bearing market.
Both examples of the mechanical engineering market demonstrat- ing the interesting potentials of
Market information
ITAtube Journal No3/October 2019
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