Tenaris hammers out partnership with Chinese

Luxembourg-based steel tube group Tenaris (NYSE: TS) has signed a cooperation accord with Chinese pipe maker Tianjin, Tenaris said in a statement. The deal foresees the two entering into a strategic alliance under which they would establish joint ventures to build a pipe threading facility and a plant manufacturing accessories for use in oil extraction and production. Both joint ventures would be located in the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and would have Tenaris as the majority owner. "China has been an important market for us since we opened a commercial office in Beijing in 1990. Today, we see many possibilities for Tenaris in China and we are excited at the prospect of working with Tianjin, the leading local producer of OCTG and a company with a strong focus on manufacturing quality products," said German Cura, head of commercial business at Tenaris. Tianjin is the leading manufacturer of OCTG casing in China. With an annual production capacity of 800,000t, the company produces seamless pipe products for domestic and export markets. Argentina's Techint group owns 61% of Tenaris, which has annual production capacity of 3Mt of seamless and 850,000t of welded pipes. It makes seamless steel tubes at Algoma (Canada), Dalmine (Italy), NKKTubes (Japan), Siderca (Argentina), Tamsa (Mexico) and Tavsa (Venezuela). Tenaris' welded pipes are produced at Confab (Brazil) and Siat (Argentina).