Location
Hidden Champions
Europipe
From Siberia to Frankfurt
75 percent of the volume of gas traded is transported from the exploitation fields to the customer country via pipelines. Many of these gases pass through pipes produced by the Mülheim-based company EUROPIPE. EUROPIPE and its predecessor companies produced more than 30 million tonnes of large pipes over the years. This would be enough to stretch around the Earth twice! With an annual production of over one million tonnes – more than 3,000 km of pipeline – EUROPIPE is one of the leading companies in the field worldwide.EUROPIPE was founded in Mülheim in 1991. The company shareholders are Salzgitter Mannesmann GmbH and Dillinger Hüttenwerke AG, both equal shareholders. EUROPIPE also operates a French factory in Dunkirk in addition to its plant in Mülheim. Its third large pipes factory (BSPC) for longitudinally welded large diameter pipes is located in Florida, USA. Production comprises more than a million tonnes of longitudinally welded pipes and up to 270,000 tonnes of helically welded pipes each year. The company has subsidiaries in the USA, Brazil and Germany.
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Trade with the energy carriers is a global market and therefore EUROPIPE operates at an international level. Just one example: the Gulfstream pipeline runs right through the Gulf of Mexico. 450,000 tonnes of large piping were needed for the line which were produced and supplied by EUROPIPE and its subsidiary BSPC in just 15 months. However, the large pipe systems from Mülheim can also be found in other latitudes: a 1,750 km long oil pipeline system – the longest in the world - runs from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Tbilisi (Georgia) and Ceyhan in Turkey.
A 78.6 km long pipeline transports gas from the south-east of Trinidad to the industrial estate of Point Fortin / La Brea in the south-west. With an outer diameter of 1,400 mm this is the largest pipeline in the American/Caribbean region.
The world’s largest underwater gas pipeline system transports gas from Norway to Great Britain and continental Europe.
The entire production chain is one integrated process at EUROPIPE. The base materials come from the plants of both shareholders. The end product takes shape at EUROPIPE’s three large pipe plants. The subsidiary companies MÜLHEIM PIPECOATINGS GmbH and eb Pipe Coating Inc. USA are responsible for coating the pipes.
At the core of the Mülheim plant is the new crimping press which can press metal sheets up to 50 mm thick – an investment in the future. More pressure means a greater load put on the piping materials, therefore explaining the trend for ever thicker pipes. This is due to oil and gas deposits found in great depths in the oceans; it also facilitates the economical transport of the raw materials. EUROPIPE pipes of up to 35 mm are being produced for the planned Baltic Sea pipeline, for example, and gas will be transported from Russia with a pressure of 220 bars. After the 1,200 km journey to Greifswald, some 100 bars will remain. The high pressure used at the starting point makes the construction of compressor stations unnecessary and consequently saves money.
