MESTP 2013: India’s pipe exports to Mena exceed 1m tonnes, Welspun says

The total volume of tube and pipe exports from India to the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is expected to have broken through the 1 million tonnes mark in 2012.

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India exported 941,300 tonnes to the Mena region in 2011, according to Manish Pathak, svp Mena of India’s Welspun Corp, speaking at Metal Bulletin’s 3rd Middle East Steel Tube and Pipe conference in Dubai this week.

The country is the main tube and pipe supplier to the region.

In 2002, exports from India to Mena totalled less than 100,000 tonnes. At the time, Europe and Japan were the major suppliers of tube and pipe products to the region.

Pathak noted that, in 2011, India sold 41% of its Mena tube and pipe exports to Iran, 24% to Iraq, 15% to Saudi Arabia, and 12% to the United Arab Emirates. This breakdown will have changed because of the trading sanctions against Iran, he said.

Mena is the most exciting business region globally for tube and pipe, Pathak said. Demand in the region is forecast to increase rapidly, fuelled by higher oil prices and production.