BorPipewww.borouge.com ❏ Issue 26, September 2012

A Borouge newsletter for the pipe industry

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Development of a new welding procedure for large diameter PP-B pipes

Children gathering for the inauguration of the new water supply systems in Pakistan

Electrofusion training course for the Veolia engineers in Nagpur, India

Borouge supports WSUP in bringing additional water to the poor communities around Lusaka

BorPipeEditor's Note

Welcome to this the 26th issue of BorPipe and I hope you will enjoy the many articles which describe some of the different market sectors in the very diverse plastic pipes industry in Asia and the Middle East.

China is a massive market for plastic pipes but hard data is difficult to find, but In Shanghai the local Chemical Construction Materials Association both collect data and monitor the quality of plastic pipes. Also following a number of incidents there is a strong drive to improve the quality of the pipes used in the construction industry, which is good news for Borouge.

Mark Heathcote from the Australian plastic pipe industry association PIPA describes how the rapidly developing coal seam gas business is changing the face of the local pipe industry. He talks about this new market and how they plan to sink up to 30,000 wells over the next 10 years and will require in excess of 55,000 km of PE100 pipes for gas and water collection.

Also you get a chance to meet some of Borouge’s new people, such as Application Marketing Manager for Sewer and Drainage Systems Michael Vogt. In an interview Michael gives some of his early impressions of the challenge ahead and his views on the market potential for PP-B materials in the Middle East and Asia.

The development of a welding procedure for large diameter thick walled PP–B HM pipes is described by Cristian Hedesiu. The investigation carried out in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Union Pipes Industry demonstrated that although the recognised DVS procedures were fine for small diameter thin walled pipes they did not work well for 3 metre diameter pipes

with a 60mm wall thickness. The optimum results were achieved using a dual pressure welding process and a higher welding temperature and this study was presented at Plastic Pipes XVI in Barcelona.

During the summer the NGO HEED organised an inauguration ceremony for the new water supply systems in the mountains of Pakistan. This took the form of a 'Water Conservation Awareness Walk' during which they visited two of the villages served in the projects. In the village of Kandol they were joined by children, some of whom carried placards with different messages to encourage water conservation and they chanted slogans as they walked from the main distribution tank down into the village. At the ceremony itself a number of VIP’s and community leaders extended their special thanks to Borouge and HEED for their generosity and commitment to the water supply projects.

Another “Water for the World” activity reported in this issue is the training given to the Lusaka Water and Sewage Company by Andy Wedgner in support of WSUP who are bringing additional water kiosks to some of the poor settlements around the city.

David Walton Marketing ManagerBorouge Marketing Centre - Pipe

Contents 3 Supporting WSUP by training water engineers in Lusaka 4 Borouge supporting environmental

awareness at Glenelg School 5 New BorSafe HSCR PE100 water main solves pumping main failure problem in

Queenstown 6 Borouge presents plastic solutions at Singapore International Water Week 7 The butt welding of

large diameter PP-B HM pipes 9 Borouge supports Veolia in Nagpur in the first full city water upgrade in India 10

PE100+ Association follow up the actions with Sino-French Water • Borouge supporting the RedR Technical Advice

Service 11 BorSafe PE100 pipes helping to protect the environment in Ningbo Industrial Park 12 Promoting

twin walled polyolefin pipes in India 13 JAIN Irrigation wins prestigious G20 Challenge Award 14 Aquatech

China sheds light on growing market needs • BorSafe PE100 system provides many benefit for aircon systems in

a large exhibition hall in India 15 PE100+ Association Advisory Meeting in Prague 16 PIPA anticipate a bright

future for the Plastic Pipe Industry in Australia 18 Technical discussions with Kabra Extrusiontechnik” 19

Inauguration of new water supply systems in Pakistan 20 Borouge sponsors Middle East Pipelines Conference

21 Safety concerns at the Underground Pipeline Development Forum in Beijing • Indian Oil and Gas Company

announces it is to invest heavily to exploit new fields 22 Michael Vogt sees an accelerating market for PP-B

materials 24 The Shanghai plastic pipes market continues to grow 26 Borouge and Borealis sponsor Pipelines

India Summit • Self-curing PEX for outer layer of multilayer composite pipes 27 BorSafe PE100 pipes and No-Dig

Technology renovate leaking water mains in Beijing 28 “Water & Food Security”, Borouge and Borealis at

Stockholm Water Week 29 BorECO PP-B ideal for the cable ducting needs in China 30 Reducing the demand for

water in China’s agricultural industry 31 Calendar of Pipe Events

3

The Lusaka Water and Sewage Company (LWSC) is a water utility company providing water and sanitation services to Lusaka province, including Lusaka city, the capital of Zambia. It was formed in 1988 and operates as a provincial utility company owned by the councils of Lusaka city, Kafue, Chongwe and Luangwa. In the capital, which is a city of 1.7 million people, the LWSC has less than 80,000 formal connections, an extremely low figure. This is partly because approximately 65% of the city’s population live in low income ‘peri-urban’ areas, where the vast majority of people draw their water from public water kiosks which is typical throughout Africa and in many other under developed countries.

In the case of Lusaka, many of the water networks in the peri-urban areas were established by different NGOs. It has been estimated that over 700,000 people are served by eleven water trusts, under licence from the LWSC. The Kamyana Water Trust is one such organisation, which operates the water

supply network in the peri-urban area of Kamyana, to the West of the city centre and currently serves around 120,000 people from three boreholes and a series of small water towers and pipelines. Most residents purchase their potable water, which they use for drinking and cooking purposes, from water kiosks which are open for 9 hours per day, where they pay 100 Zambian Kwacha (2 US Cents) for a 20 litre bucket or container full. Water for other domestic purposes is often drawn from shallow wells in the dolomite rock which covers the area, rising up to the surface in many places.

Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) are undertaking a humanitarian programme in the Kanyama peri-urban area. Part of the programme involves the laying of ten kilometres of extensions to the existing water network and the construction of twenty water kiosks, with the aim of increasing the number of people with regular access to safe potable water by 30,000.

The very hard dolomite rock extends up to the surface in many parts of the Kanyama site, dramatically increasing the excavation costs and creating a challenging environment in which the buried pipelines are likely to be subject to significant loads due to their shallow depth and point loads from rock fragments. WSUP therefore decided to adopt the use of PE100 pipelines, rather than the uPVC pipelines which are generally used by the LWSC.As many of the engineers from the LWSC and WSUP’s local team, headed by Reuben Sipuma, were not familiar with PE100 pipelines WSUP requested that Borouge’s Andy Wedgner, an experienced water utilities engineer, come out to Lusaka to hold a workshop and undertake a site visit. The aim of the workshop was to introduce local engineers to PE100 as a pipe material and to train them in the design and installation of PE100 pipelines, especially in challenging conditions, such as those faced in Kanyama.

Some of the water engineers at the formal PE pipe training session One of the existing water kiosks serving the residents of Kamyana

Supporting WSUP by training water engineers in Lusaka

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The workshop was attended by 15 engineers and technical staff who received a comprehensive introduction to PE100 and its use in water utility networks, whilst the

site visit demonstrated the need for the water network extensions and the substantial geotechnical challenges faced by the LWSC in laying a pipeline in such rocky conditions. Having seen the site Andy decided to recommend the use of High Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 material in order to minimise the risk of frequent pipeline failure due to the rocky conditions, especially as the dolomite rock is very hard and forms sharp edged fragments when broken up.

Andy also recommended the extensive use of coiled pipes in order to reduce the number of joints and that compression fittings be used for pipes diameters up to 90 mm rather than electro-fusion fittings, due to the lack of experience amongst the local

contractors and water utilities. For 110 mm and larger sized pipelines it was recommended that wherever practical, the pipes and fittings should be butt fusion welded to provide the strongest available joints and minimise any risks to the security of supply.

Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) is a partnership between the private sector, civil society and academia focussed on addressing the increasing global problem of inadequate access to water and sanitation for the urban poor and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal targets, particularly those relating to water and sanitation. Borouge and Borealis became members of WSUP in 2007 as part of their “Water for the World” initiative.

View of Kanyama site showing the hard dolomite rock formations

Borouge supporting environmental awareness at Glenelg School

Andy Wedgner of Borouge joined other guest speakers at the Glenelg School in Abu Dhabi to address the students from the “Enviromates Club” about some important

global issues. The event was part of an Environmental Awareness Week at the school when students were involved in many activities such as planting flowers, colouring the globe poster and writing messages about how they can help save the earth, origami and decorating their own T-shirts with ideas of how to save the earth and protect the environment.

Andy addressed the global water challenge and described how the Borouge plant in Ruwais was contributing to the drive to save water by reducing their own “Water Footprint”. Measuring the “Water Footprint” is a way of comparing the water efficiency of different manufacturing processes and products, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of the company’s operations. Another speaker, Meha Sanker from the Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi (EAD) focused in her speech on the significance of sparing five minutes

each day to help save the environment, while Abeer Alwi and Huda Al Sinani from Al Thebianeyah Model School in Abu Dhabi set up a workshop for Origami to show the students some creative paper reusing ideas. Ali Al Hosani from ADNOC provided the students of the school with 1,000 young plants to improve their school, while Adel Al Fahim and Jawhara Bin Ishaq from Borouge presented the students with colouring pens and painting kits to enable them to express their ideas and thoughts on environmental protection. The EAD also presented gifts to all the Enviromates at the school who had worked hard to make this event so successful. It was agreed by all that the event was a great success and it was decided to make it an annual event at the Glenelg School with the aim of developing plans to spread environmental awareness outside the school, reaching the families and friends of the students.

Andy Wedgner adding his ideas for protecting the environment to those of the “Enviromates Club” at the Glenelg School

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Queenstown, in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island, is a beautiful spot surrounded by lakes and mountains. Although the permanent resident population of the area is just over 20,000, Queenstown is the tourism and extreme sport destination of choice for Australasia, generating a population increase of at least 4 fold during the winter months. In fact the tourism influx has recently broadened to the warmer months too, with jet-boating, river rafting, mountain biking and hiking opportunities in abundance. The quality and operational ability of the water supply system for the area is therefore important and when this is threatened by a series of pipe failures it is critical that action is taken.

The failures started to occur in a section of the Fernhill water supply

system from 2008 onwards. In fact over a period of time a 588 metre Section of 200mm class 12 PVC-U pressure main connecting a pumping station to a reservoir failed several times causing a great deal of damage to both the natural and constructed environment and in at least one case, shutting down part of the system. Analysis of the failures showed that they were due to a combination of pressure surges on opening and closing the valve at the pumping station and point loads from the stony backfill material.

Tyco Water New Zealand suggested to Queenstown Lakes District Council that an ideal replacement material would be a High Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 as PE is very resistant to surge pressures and the HSCR

The new BorSafe HSCR PE100 pumping main installed in the Fernhill system

New BorSafe HSCR PE100 water main solves pumping main failure problem in Queenstown

material is specially developed for stony backfill conditions. Indeed as part of the approval testing of this material it is subjected to a one year elevated temperature pressure test in the presence of a high point load and therefore it should resist the stresses produced by the stones in the backfill in the Fernhill system.

The Tyco Advantage Ultra pipe used was a multilayer pipe with the outer layer produced from dark blue BorSafe HE3494-LS-H HSCR PE100 material and the core produced from BorSafe HE3490-LS-H HSCR PE100. The pipe material was the right selection for this particular site as the replacement pipeline route was through a recreational forest area including a hiking and mountain bike zone. It was stipulated that construction was to have minimal environment impact; selecting Advantage 10 Ultra removed the need to import selected bedding materials, which gave the benefit of less construction machinery movements hence less impact on the surrounding environment and shortened the construction time compared with standard PE100 pipe systems.

This pipe design also provides guidance to the depth of any scores in the outside of the pipe during handling and installation as any pipe that shows the black core material should be discarded. With this new HSCR PE100 main in position the Queenstown Lakes District Council can be confident in the security of the water supply system to meet the needs of both the locals and the many tourists in the region for many years to come.

Borouge supporting environmental awareness at Glenelg School

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Borouge presents plastic solutions at Singapore International Water Week

Borouge presented some of their sustainable plastic solutions to the world’s water and sanitation problems at the Water Expo at this year’s Singapore International Water Week. Under the “Water for the World” umbrella the stand showed a number of film, moulding and pipe solutions using the latest polyolefin materials. The large exhibition area also housed “Trenchless Asia” for the first time and attracted many visitors from the 18,500 people from over 100 countries that attended the event.

The main feature on the Borouge stand was the recent project in the mountains of Pakistan which brought new water systems to the local communities to replace those destroyed in the floods during the summer of 2010. The work was carried out by the NGO HEED supported by Borouge under the “Water for the World” initiative together with their agent Arfeen

International and local pipe producer Sun International. The President of HEED, Mubashir Niaz, was present on the Borouge stand to explain the project to the many visitors including the Borouge Singapore office staff who visited the stand on Wednesday afternoon. The Pakistan ‘Water for the World’ project was also the subject of a poster paper at the associated conference which was attended by water and sanitation professionals from all over the world. Copies of the paper were also distributed to visitors to the stand.

The Business Forums were, as usual, very informative and well attended by delegates keen to find out the latest information on water related investments around the world. For example, Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company announced that it would be investing almost US$9 billion in municipal water projects in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Mekkah and Taif over

the next 5 years. Also the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the Philippines' leading water authority, announced a US$1.5 billion investment programme to establish a Water Security Legacy (WSL) for the 15 million residents of Metro Manila.

In India despite a number of projects undertaken in recent years the water availability per capita is continuing to fall and the urban infrastructure deficit increasing. In cities such as Bangalore compulsory rainwater harvesting is being introduced to try and reverse the trend. At the Indian Business Forum the Mulkapur 24x7 water project was held up as a model for providing water to rural villages, which is now being replicated in a number of other areas. This project, which provided metered water to nearly 3000 homes in early 2008, was strongly supported by Borouge and Kimplas Piping Systems and was featured in a CNBC documentary later that same year.

The Borouge ‘Water for the World’ stand at Singapore International Water Week

Mubashir Niaz of HEED speaking to the Borouge Singapore team.

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Cristian Hedesiu of Borouge Pte based in Abu Dhabi

The butt welding of large diameter PP-B HM pipes

In the Middle East many large industrial plants use sea water as a cooling fluid, often in a heat exchanger with the process water. In these circumstances large diameter sea water intakes and outlet pipes are required to convey the water to the plant and due to the aggressive nature of the sea water plastics are the obvious choice for these pipelines.

In a recent project in Abu Dhabi, Union Pipes Industry (UPI) produced 2 and 3 metre diameter sea water pipelines with a wall thickness of over 60mm using spiral winding technology and BorECO BA212E PP-B HM material. To provide the best resistance to the installation and operational loads on

the pipelines it was decided to butt weld the pipes together and in this article Cristian Hedesiu of Borouge describes how working in a joint project team with UPI they identified the optimum butt welding conditions.

For small diameter PP pipes the butt welding method is specified in the German standard DVS 2207-11:1999. This describes both the welding process (see figure 1) and the jointing parameters for pipes up to 50mm wall thickness. However for thicker walled pipes it was necessary to extrapolate values as shown in table 1.

These conditions were applied to a number of butt welds and test pieces cut from the joints and tensile and bending tests carried out in accordance with the DVS standard. In the bending tests the bend angle, as measured by the ram displacement, and the fracture appearance when the test is terminated provide a guide to the ductility of the welded joint and hence the weld quality. The test was carried out according to DIN 50014-23/50-2 on 6 test specimens for each face of the weld by using a ram speed of 50 mm/min. The ram displacement corresponding to bending angle of 160˚ in case of no failure should be higher than 150 mm.

The results of these initial tests are given in table 2. As shown both the

Figure 1: Process steps in heated tool butt welding of PP pipes according to DVS 2207-11

tensile weld factor, which is the ratio of the tensile strength of the joint compared to that of a pipe reference sample, and the bending displacement fail to meet the DVS criteria.

The poor results suggest that there is insufficient heat in the joint in these thick walled pipes and therefore it was decided to increase the heater plate temperature to 240°C. At the same time it was decided to adopt a dual pressure welding regime as they did in the UK for welding thick walled PE pressure pipes (refer WIS 32-08:1994). The objective of dual pressure welding is to allow the molten polymer to cool with minimal shear stress, thus allowing the crystal structure to develop without distortion or orientation. The process is shown in figure 2 and any orientation introduced under the high primary fusion stage (stage II). Moreover reducing the jointing pressure during stage II reduces the amount of polymer melt pushed out from the pipe body into the weld bead.

After a number of trials a set of parameters were established using the dual pressure method that gave consistently good joints. These parameters are given in table 3.

1 2. Alignment 3. Heating-up 4. Changeover 5. JoiningHeated tool temperature

210 ±10˚CNominal

wall thickness

Bead height (alignment

p=0.10 N/mm2

Heating-up (p=≤0.01 N/mm2)

Change over time

Joining pressure build-up

time

Cooling time under joining

pressure p=0.10±0.01

N/mm2

mm mm S s s Min37...50 2.5 485...560 14...17 32...43 55...70

Extrapolated values 50...65 3 560...650 17...20 43...55 70...85

Table 1: DVS 2207-11 guide values for the heated tool butt welding of pipes, fittings and panels made of PP at an outdoor temperature of approx. 20 ̊ C with moderate air movement

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Compression test on full scale pipe

Tensile test on a sample butt joint at UPI Bending test being carried out on a sample

Table 2: Tensile and bending test results following DVS 2207-11 guide values for the heated tool butt welding of pipes

Test Unit DVS Requirement Test results

Tensile weld factor 0.9 0.89

Bending displacement mm 13mm 9.6 - 12.6

Test Unit Design Requirement Test results

Tensile stress at yield N/mm2 15 24

Table 4: Tensile and bending test results of dual pressure method with lower joining pressure

Test Unit DVS Requirement Test resultsTensile weld factor 0.9 0.92

Bending displacement mm 13mm 15.5

Test Unit Design Requirement Test resultsTensile stress at yield N/mm2 15 27

Table 3: The welding parameters used in the investigation

Welding parameters Units DVS 2207-11 Dual Pressure method

Welding temperature °C 210 240Alignment pressure N/mm2 0.1 0.1

Alignment time s as required as requiredHeating-up pressure N/mm2 <0.0125 <0.0125

Heating-up time s 15 *wall thickness 15*wall thicknessChange over time s 20 20

Joining build-up time s 0.1*wall thickness 0.1*wall thicknessJoining pressure stage I N/mm2 0.1 0.075

Cooling time stage I s 10Joining pressure stage II N/mm2 0.025

Cooling time stage II s 84*wall thicknessTotal cooling time min 85 91

The results of welding tests from the dual pressure method are shown in table 4 and indicate an average strength of around 25N/mm2 for the optimum welding parameters and a weld factor of 0.92. The weld factor meets the DVS requirements and strength exceeds the proposed Inspection

and Test Plan (ITP) acceptance value of 15N/mm2 derived from design considerations. The test results shown in Table 4 were also verified by tests at TUV Institute in Germany.

In addition to the DVS 2207-11 requirements a number of non-standard tests were carried out to

Figure 2: Process steps in butt welding of PP pipe using the dual pressure process

assess the performance of the pipes and the welded joints. This included a full scale compression test on the welded large diameter pipe using concrete pipe crushing equipment. Even when the welded section was compressed by 30% on the weld line no cracking or delamination of the weld was observed indicating a good weld quality which would be able to withstand the loads on the pipes during installation and operation.

It is clear that high modulus PP-B materials are ideal in the spiral winding process for the production of high quality large diameter non pressure pipes. Indeed a number of these pipes have been used in utility and industrial projects in Europe but in all these cases reinforced spigot and socket joints were used. This work has shown that when the conditions demand that full wall butt fusion jointing is required welding procedures are now available to provide high quality joints.

NB: This project was also presented at the Plastics Pipes XVI Conference in Barcelona in September 2012.

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Prashant Nikhade from Borouge presents on electro-fusion jointing to the Veolia engineers

Located in the heart of India, Nagpur is the country's tenth largest city and the second largest in Maharashtra State. Nagpur is undergoing very rapid urban growth and the population is expected to grow from 2.7 to 5 million over the next 30 years. The city also has a highly dynamic economy which will require a secure supply of water if it is to continue to grow and Nagpur Municipal Corporation intends to provide uninterrupted water supply to the city on a 24x7 basis.

Veolia Water India has been awarded the drinking water service operation and maintenance contract by the city of Nagpur for the next 25 years. To accomplish this Veolia Water India has set up a separate company, Orange City Water (OCW), in a joint venture with Vishvaraj Environment Ltd., one of India's leading civil engineering and services companies. OCW will be responsible for upgrading the system to provide a continuous supply of drinking water to the people of Nagpur, who today sometimes receive water for only 2 hours a day. This service will

Borouge supports Veolia in Nagpur in the first full city water upgrade in India

cover the entire population of Nagpur, including the 30% of citizens who live in the city's slums. This is the first time that an Indian city has decided to outsource the entire operation and maintenance of its water service to a private operator for such a lengthy term.

The technical challenge is considerable, as it involves connecting from 350,000 to 450,000 homes to the distribution network and increasing the amount of water available per person from 90 to 130 liters a day over the next five years. OCW will invest US$22 million in the project to renovate the city's six water production plants and repair and extend the 2,500 km of pipe network. The eventual production capacity of the system will be close to 750 million litres a day and the leakage from the network, which is currently 60%, will be gradually lowered to international standards. Veolia is mainly responsible for the execution of this project including setting up pipe quality standards and monitoring the purchases whilst Vishvaraj will look after local liaison

and the commercial aspects of the business.

Barry Jensen, Director of Capital Works and Rahul Lohakare, Deputy General Manager from Veolia emphasized that they are keen to ensure that good quality PE pipes and the best installation practices are used in this project. Borouge agreed to support them to achieve this target and Prashant Nikhade and Vikram Handa from Borouge India agreed to deliver a seminar on electro-fusion welding and practical training to their engineers.

In his opening remarks to the seminar Barry Jensen explained that Borouge had contributed a lot to the promotion of good quality in PE pipe systems and the participants. In the training both the theory of the electro-fusion process and practical aspects of the jointing procedure were covered. This included the importance of proper scraping and the use of the correct alignment clamps together with a diagnostic session on some of the common faults seen in electro-fusion jointing. Also included was a presentation of the importance of using good quality PE pipes produced from pre-compounded fully characterised raw material to achieve the best results in terms of the durability of the system.

The training session was attended by nearly twenty engineers and welding technicians from OCW and afterwards they all agreed that the knowledge they had gained would help them to implement the correct procedures and deliver leak free electro-fusion welded joints for the Nagpur network.

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At the end of May the PE100+ Asia Group were invited to join the Sino-French Water group at an internal seminar in Tianjin. The seminar had been organised by their local joint venture company Tanggu JV and was attended by representatives of all their other JV

RedR is an international disaster relief charity that helps to save lives around the world by training aid

companies in China. The meeting was organised to discuss leakage control and to exchange their experiences on the quality of PE pipes in China. On the latter subject two external speakers were also invited to share their experiences, K.M. Ho of Hong Kong and China Gas and Philippe Mappa

from the Palyja Water Company in Jakarta, Indonesia.

For Sino-French Water Wang Jin of the Zhongshan Tanzhou Water Company described how after a number of earlier field trials they had introduced PE pipes across the company in 2007. However in subsequent years they experienced a number of failures due to the lack of control over raw material and pipe quality and some poor installation practices. At that stage guided by an expert from the UK water industry they evaluated a number of local pipe suppliers and developed a well defined code of practice covering system design, installation guidance, quality control and engineering quality inspection. KM Ho then presented the work within the gas industry in China to set up their G5 management committee and the quality systems.

PE100+ Association follow up the actions with Sino-French Water

Borouge supporting the RedR Technical Advice Service

KM Ho of Hong Kong & China Gas sharing their experience of PE pipe systems quality with delegates from Sino French Water

Andy Wedgner describes the RedR organisation that supports other NGO’s in the field

Robin Bresser reviewing the actions of the PE100+ Asia Group with the Sino-French Water Management team

workers, providing skilled professionals for humanitarian programmes and providing a free online technical advice service to humanitarian agencies and aid workers worldwide. Recently Borouge’s Robin Bresser, Andy Wedgner and David Walton joined the organisation’s pool of 150 experts who offer technical advice to aid workers. They will advise on the selection, design and installation of the PO pipe systems that are installed in a wide range of projects around the world. The RedR organisation was founded in London in 1980 by engineer Peter Guthrie following the time he spent delivering aid during the Vietnamese Boat People Crisis. On returning from refugee camps in Malaysia he saw the pressing need for engineers to help in this sort of work and compiled

a register of engineers who could be called upon at short notice to work with frontline relief agencies. Oxfam provided the seed funding and RedR was formally registered as a charity and in 1988 Britain’s Princess Royal became its President a position that she still holds today.

Over the years the service developed strongly and a number of subsidiary organisations have been formed and the number and variety of training courses offered in the UK and in the overseas country have greatly increased. In 2005 RedR established a programme in Darfur, Sudan, in response to the country’s civil war and trained 4,000 national and international aid workers over the next five years. Today RedR’s UK programme delivers a wide range of training courses, from a basic

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Ningbo on China’s east coast is one the country’s oldest cities and has recently been expanding rapidly thanks to the activity at its Chemical Industrial Park. Up until today more than 70 Chinese and international petrochemical companies have invested in manufacturing facilities in the industrial park which is situated on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay. Although the chemical industry is a major factor in the future prosperity of the region the local government is taking all measures possible to ensure that the environmental impact of the industrial development is minimised.

Waste water from the site is a good example of the environmental protection as this will be collected, treated and then transported offshore for more than 1.6 km where it is discharged into the deep sea. They also ensured that the most durable pipe system was chosen to reduce the chance of spillage by asking a group of experts to carry out a feasibility study to compare various pipe materials. Ultimately they chose PE pipes produced from Borouge’s pre-compounded BorSafe HE3490-LS material because of their excellent performance and proven track record in similar projects.

The pipes transporting the water from the waste water treatment facility to the deep sea discharge point were 800 mm in diameter and were produced by the well known and experienced pipe producer Chinaust Shanghai. The project required a total length of more than 2 km of which 1.6 km of the pipe was to be buried on the sea bed. The pipes were butt welded at the installation site and then concrete blocks were fixed to the pipe strings to ensure that they remain anchored to the sea bed. Now the developers know that as the industrial park continues to expand the PE100 pipes produced from BorSafe HE3490-LS will safely take the treated waste water out to sea for many years to come.

BorSafe PE100 pipes helping to protect the environment in Ningbo Industrial Park

Attaching the concrete blocks to BorSafe PE100 pipeline to keep it anchored to the sea bed

His presentation was very much appreciated by the delegates and Jin Sheng, the Network and Customer Services Manager, for Sino French Water in China personally thanked KM Ho for his support and said that their experience will certainly be useful for their JVs to improve the quality of their systems.

In the afternoon the PE100+ Asia Group members and the Sino-French Management team discussed the actions from their earlier meeting in Beijing in November 2011. Robin Bresser of Borouge reviewed the recent work of the PE100+ Association and introduced Zhao Qihui who reviewed the status of the national standards for PE water pipes and fittings in China and Yang Haiyun of SKZ who described the welding training courses they could offer in China. With these further resources in place the Sino-French Network Technical Committee believed that they could now feel confident in meeting their Non Revenue Water targets by using good quality PE100 pipes and fittings and well defined installation procedures.

introduction to the sector to specialist courses for professional aid workers which are credit rated in partnership with Oxford Brookes University. The subjects offered include: safety, security, logistics, shelter, WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene), project management and training of trainers.

Also as the organisation has grown the number of engineers based in the UK and other countries that have become members has increased and many have undertaken disaster relief assignments through the organisation, including Borouge’s Andy Wedgner. The RedR Technical Support Service (TSS) provides free, expert advice to NGOs and aid workers undertaking programmes anywhere in the world. As Technical Support Manager Tony Gould explains; “We endeavour to provide an initial answer to emergency technical enquiries within 48 hours, which is often backed up with more detail in the next few days and for non emergency enquiries we will respond within 5 days”.

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Borouge contributed to a seminar in

the Taj Banjara Hotel in Hyderabad

organised jointly by machine

manufacturers Neptune Plastics

Industries of Kolkata, India and

their partner Unicor GmbH of

Germany. The seminar attracted

over 70 delegates from local pipe

manufacturers who were keen to

learn about this technology, which

is relatively new to India.

Opening the seminar, Chanchal

Dasgupta of Borouge explained the

benefits of flexible non pressure

polyolefin (PO) pipes compared to

rigid concrete or asbestos cement

pipes based on research carried

out in Germany and Scandinavia.

Because the PO pipes can deflect

slightly under load they can

transfer most of the stresses to

Promoting twin walled polyolefin pipes in India

Lightweight twin walled PP-B pipes being installed in Mudgee Water Treatment Plant, Australia

Typical brittle failures of concrete sewage pipes due to external point loading

the surrounding soil whereas in rigid

materials the stresses build up until the

pipes fractures. Thus PO pipes have

a much higher durability and since

they are also resistant to corrosion

or chemical attack they are ideal for

carrying sewage or industrial chemical

effluent.

The PO pipes are also considerably

lighter and easier to handle and install

than concrete or asbestos cement

pipes which can considerably reduce

the construction time and the total

project costs. He then described the

BorECO range of PP-B high modulus

materials that have been specifically

developed for non pressure pipe

applications. These materials have

already been used successfully in

many countries around the world for

sewage and drainage applications and

for large diameter industrial sea outfall

pipes in sizes up to 3 metres diameter.

Niko Bendel from Unicor then made

an excellent presentation on the

machinery used to manufacture twin

walled pipes from PE and PP materials

and some of the typical applications for

the products. Unicor and Neptune work

together in India to provide complete

production lines to manufacture single

and twin walled pipes from 4 to 2,400

mm in diameter.

The final presentation was from

Satish Bhaia, the Managing Director

of Neptune Plastics Industries who

presented some of their recent

developments in plastics processing

equipment. He especially mentioned

their preventive maintenance audit

programme for their customers.

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Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. (JISL), India’s largest and the world’s second largest micro irrigation company has been presented with the prestigious “G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation” award. The company received this globally acclaimed honour at a high profile event at the G20 Leaders Summit at Cabos, Mexico, in June 2012. The G20 Challenge recognises businesses that have succeeded in developing innovative, scalable and commercially viable business models that address the particular needs of people living at the base of the pyramid. This was the first time that these awards had been presented and JISL won their award for its contribution to the agriculture sector.

JISL has pioneered a green revolution through micro irrigation technology,

JAIN Irrigation wins prestigiousG20 Challenge Award

President Obama talking with Mr Anil Jain at an Agricultural Innovation Exhibition in Mumbai in November 2010

which comprises mainly of drip and sprinkler systems. These are agricultural irrigation systems that focus on the efficient use of water through its controlled release in the root zone of the plants. In contrast, the conventional flood irrigation system waters the field rather than the plants, is wasteful and degrades the soil quality in the longer term. Micro irrigation technology not only saves precious water but also increases yields. As a result, it creates a win-win situation for the farmers, especially for the small holder marginal farmers, for whom the systems are heavily subsidised by the Indian Government.

The G20 Challenge Award citation describes JISL as a company that “works with small holder farmers on both ends of the food supply chain seeking out progressive, receptive

farmers; providing them with micro irrigation systems; training them in efficient planting, irrigating and harvesting; selling them organic fertilizer and high yield seeds; and, finally, purchasing their produce. By shedding their dependence on wasteful traditional forms of irrigation, farmers increase their income by US$100 to US$1,000 per acre at the same time as conserving 500 million cubic metres of water per year compared to flood irrigation.”

The company also runs an institute to train its 3,000 distributors and engineers to take orders, deliver products, and teach people how to use them. The distributors along with Jain’s own agronomists and engineers, in turn train more than 100,000 farmers every year on their farms. In addition, Jain’s procurement network consists of 2,100 contract farmers, which allows them to maintain a high standard of food safety and traceability in a market that is otherwise highly fragmented.

Mr Anil Jain, Managing Director and CEO, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. said, “We are humbled by this global recognition of our work. Our innovative inclusive business model represents a new paradigm for achieving widespread and lasting development impact and making a significant contribution to solving social challenges and creating income generating opportunities to millions of people. The award will inspire us to work with renewed vigour to propagate the technology at a greater pace throughout the country and the world.”

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At the 2012 Aquatech China held in Shanghai from 6th to 8th June Borouge showcased its latest series of pipe products for infrastructure and internal plumbing and heating

Aquatech China sheds light on growing market needs

The Borouge team with Mr. An, CEO of Wujiang Water, & Mr. Jia, General Manager of Shanghai Chinaust

The BorECO PP-B corrugated pipe samples were a big attraction to visitors to the Borouge stand

applications. The solutions included PE pressure pipes produced using the High Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 material BorSafe™ HE3490-LS-H made by Chinaust; PE fittings

from CZMZ; BorECO PP-B corrugated pipes provided by Shanghai ERA and PP-R pipe systems from Shanghai White Butterfly. These innovative offerings provided a strong appeal to visitors especially those from environmental engineering, waste water treatment, design institutes and end users.

To maximize interaction with customers, some key customers in Shanghai such as White Butterfly, ERA and Chinaust joined the Borouge team to receive visitors on the stand and discussed with them their needs. Aquatech is also a good platform for Borouge to meet with friends and corporate leaders in the water industry such as Shanghai Fengxian Water Works, Water Treatment New Technology Industrialization Base and AtonTech.

Mumbai Navi was developed in 1972 as a satellite city to Mumbai, much of it from reclaimed land from the sea. Recently the City and Industrial Development Corporation

(CIDCO) of Maharashtra commissioned the construction of a large and prestigious Exhibition and Business Centre near Vashi railway station at a total cost of US$40 million. Naturally in such a warm climate to provide the desired air quality for the facilities the building needed a large capacity (800 ton) air conditioning system.

Normally in India for this type of building the air conditioning ducts and chambers are constructed in concrete set into the concrete floor of the building with vertical metal risers to deliver the cool air into the building. However in this project the architect decided to use 1200 mm diameter buried PE100 pipes for the main ducts and smaller diameter PE100 pipes as the vertical risers. This is the first time that PE pipes have been used in such a large air conditioning system.

Underground air conditioning pipes showing connections for vertical risers

BorSafe PE100 system provides many benefit for aircon systems in a large exhibition hall in India

The choice of PE100 provided a number of major advantages compared to the traditional system:-

• Concrete is porous which means that some of the cool air is lost in the structure whereas PE systems are non porous thereby reducing expensive energy costs.

• Energy losses due to heat transfer are also more than halved using PE compared to concrete systems.

• Rising moisture from the soil can be a problem with concrete systems particularly in the rainy season.

• The PE system was also much easier and quicker to install – one major saving was that the concrete floor could be cast immediately after the PE pipe was installed and tested

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The PE100+ Association Advisory Committee met in the Czech capital of Prague in mid June to discuss their programme of activities with other members of the pipe value chain. As usual the event was very well attended, this time with a strong delegation from central and eastern European countries.

This was the first meeting for the new Chairperson, Christine Bertrand, who took over the role from Henri Van Speybroeck who had chaired the committee since its inception. Opening the meeting the President of the association, Ulrich Schulte, reviewed the actions in 2011 together with Robin Bresser who is the Vice President and Chairman of the Asia section. In Asia a number of events had been arranged during the year including the Plastic Pipes “spin off” conference in Beijing and meetings with the China Gas Research Institute and the Sino-French Water Group. Ulrich Schulte and Steve Beech also provided an update on the technical projects and the ISO product standards for plastic pipes. This included a programme of work being undertaken by EXOVA who were studying the influence of ambient temperature on the cooling time for butt fusion joints and the benefits of forced cooling the joint.

A number of presentations followed describing the plastic pipe markets in central and eastern Europe. In the Former Soviet Union demand for PE pipe had been growing rapidly over the last few years and now stood at around 400kt per year, Russia with its 143 million people was the largest single market in the region and Polyplastic the largest pipe supplier with 13 plants in the region currently producing 178kt of PE pipe. Local PE raw material supply was still limited and would remain so until at least 2015 and therefore currently over 50% of the material was imported.

Werner Wessing of EON-Rhurgas then talked about the future needs of the European gas industry including the need for a recognised standard for High Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 materials and an improved permeation resistance for PE pipelines as more hydrogen will be used in the future, with 5-7 times the permeation rate of methane. He also believed that a non destructive means of testing joints would be required and a method of assessing the remaining life of PE pipes so that a more meaningful risk assessment methodology can be developed for PE pipe networks.

After lunch the delegates broke up into groups to discuss training and communication with a particular focus on developing the website and bringing in new interactive ways to spread knowledge and information on PE pipe systems. The association’s new Marketing Manager, Marie-Francoise Bottin of Plastiem gathered together the suggestions to help form the communication plan for the next 12 months.

PE100+ Association Advisory Meeting in Prague

Members of the PE100+ Advisory Committee outside the Esplanade Hotel in Prague

According to the Chinese Environmental Investment Union, the Chinese government will invest RMB2 trillion (over US$300 billion) on energy saving and emission reduction during the current Five Year Plan (2011-2015). The recycling economy also becomes a core component of the Chinese government’s sustainability strategy with 100 model projects and 1000 model enterprises or industrial parks to be created.

These national directives will provide promising market opportunities for the pipe industry as polyolefin pipes can be applied not only in traditional infrastructure but also in desalination, energy engineering and large industrial projects. At Aquatech this year, there were increasing requests and enquiries related to these application areas and Borouge’s Sales and Marketing teams are now following up by arranging meetings and visits to potential industrial customers to promote large diameter polyolefin pipes.

whereas the concrete ducts and chambers would have required a 21 day curing period before the floor could be cast around them. Also using PE systems most of the special fittings could be made in the factory saving considerable construction time on site.

• Since the reclaimed land is low lying the soil stability is not good and the area is also prone to occasional seismic activity but the largely welded PE systems can accommodate a certain amount of ground movement.

• The PE system will provide a long life without the need for the regular maintenance and cleaning necessary with concrete systems.

All the pipes and fittings were manufactured and installed by Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd (JISL) from Jalgaon using BorSafe HE3490-LS pre-compounded PE100 material from Borouge. This project clearly demonstrates the value of using PE systems in these large air conditioning systems which is expected to lead to further projects in India and further afield.

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PIPA anticipate a bright future for the Plastic Pipe Industry in Australia

Mark Heathcote,Executive General Manager of PIPA

Mark, can you tell us about the current situation in Australia regarding the market for plastics pipes?

In Australia there is a healthy market for plastics pipes which is currently worth approximately US$1.5 billion per annum and employs around 3,500 people. The market includes all materials and applications in the infrastructure and building sectors together with a strong presence in the mining and coal seam gas extraction industries.

In most sectors the industry tends to follow the European model for product and operational standards but in mining and coal seam gas extraction we have had to develop many of our own specifications and codes of practice due to the unique

nature of the business. In particular the rate of development of the coal seam gas business over the past three to four years has been pretty dramatic and providing the operational support for this industry has taken a large part of the time of the Association and our members.

Can you explain how the Association fits into this market and how it operates?

PIPA, which is short for the Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia, represents the interests of the plastics pipe industry including PE, PVC, PP and PEX pipelines. We have relationships with all of the key stakeholders including raw material suppliers, pipe manufacturers, industry bodies such as APIA (Australian Pipeline Industry Association), Water Associations, Department of Defence and other

Government Departments. We develop standards and codes of practice through our comprehensive technical program where we have over 60 nominees on the 30 Australian Standard committees and support Australia’s representation on the International Standards Committee ISO TC138.

Recently projects we have undertaken have included raising the awareness of the environmental benefits of plastic pipe systems with the Green Building Council in both Australia and overseas and contributing to the development of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association, APIA, Code of Practice “UPSTREAM PE GATHERING NETWORKS - CSG INDUSTRY”.

Clearly the Coal Seam Gas Industry is important to the current and future shape of the plastic pipe industry in Australia

Despite the economic slowdown in many other parts of the world Australia is quietly doing rather well. The statistics show that it is a young country that is rich in natural resources that will secure its future prosperity. So what of the plastic pipe industry? - is this also growing and thriving – who better to ask than the Executive General Manager of the local plastic pipe industry’s association, PIPA, Mark Heathcote. In this article Alex Stewart of Borouge asks Mark his views on the future prospects for the industry.

After studying science at University and majoring in Metallurgy, Mark worked for about 15 years with metals including manufacturing, NDT and fabrication. After that he moved into the Water Industry working for Sydney Water where he had a number of roles in Asset and Capital Works Management. It was during this time that he was first exposed to plastic pipes. He followed this with a period with a consultancy company working on pipeline condition assessment and management, which mainly involved metal pipelines but included some work on plastic pipelines.

Mark then joined PIPA in 2005 as their Technical Manager and has since led the Association from strength to strength.

17

BorSafe PE100 315 to 500 mm in diameter will be used to gather the gas and water and bring it to collection points

- can you tell us a little bit more about it?

Coal seam gas is locked into underground coal seams and there are large deposits in Eastern Australia, particularly in the State of Queensland. This gas is much closer to the surface than conventional gas deposits and therefore relatively easy to extract. In fact gas has been extracted for domestic use in power generation for over ten years but the recent dramatic increase in interest and activity has been driven by the opportunity to export LNG to countries such as China and Japan. Water is also extracted with the gas, which in an area like Queensland, where rainfall is unpredictable can also be valuable for industrial purposes or after treatment for topping up local domestic supplies.

Currently four major consortiums are planning to extract the gas and water from these coal deposits and transport the gas in large diameter high pressure pipelines to coastal liquefaction plants

where it will be turned into LNG, which can then be shipped to customers around the world. In this process they are expecting to sink up to 30,000 wells and will require in excess of 55,000 km of PE pipes for gas and water collection. The construction will take place over the next 10 years and the systems will continue to operate for a further 20 years. Can you tell us about some of the challenges that the coal seam gas development has given the plastics pipes industry and PIPA?

The scale and speed of the development has certainly been challenging and a number of new pipe production plants have been established near to the operations to efficiently service the industry. Since much of the installation is being carried out in remote rural areas ploughing the pipes into the ground becomes a viable operation. This reduces both the installation time and cost but in return has required

the development of specialised equipment in both the pipe factories and for the installation sites. Also with the influx of so many new people into the industry, most of whom were new to PE systems, training has been a challenge and many of our PIPA members have contributed to this effort.

Were there any specific technical issues that you had to deal with regarding coal seam gas?

One issue of particular concern was the operating temperature of the PE100 gas collection system as the gas can reach temperatures of up to 45°C. However fortunately we were able to draw on the rationale we had already developed for dealing with the transportation of high temperature bore water from an earlier project called ‘Piping the Bores’. This dealt with the collection of water from bore holes sunk into a huge aquifer underneath the eastern seaboard of Australia, which is called the Great Artesian Basin. he temperature of the water emerging from these bore holes can be as high as 60°C and again PE was the material of choice for this application due to the remoteness of the locations, its ease of installation and cost effectiveness.

To gain a fuller understanding of the performance of PE pipes at higher temperatures long term tests were carried out on modern PE100 materials and the actual results used to develop a new standard. We found that for these high quality pre-compounded PE100 materials the pressure de-rating factors at higher temperatures in the existing standards AS/NZS4131 and ISO 4427 were very conservative and therefore a new standard POP013 was developed.

Therefore when it was clear that the PE100 pipes in the coal seam gas

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application would be subjected to similar conditions POP013 was used to set the pressure de-rating levels and was eventually incorporated in Queensland legislation as part of the Code of Practice for PE gas gathering systems.

Installing the twin gas and water BorSafe PE pipes across rural Queensland using ploughing equipment

Mark many thanks for that update on recent developments - have you any additional thoughts about the future?

I think the future for high quality PE pipe systems in Australia looks very good at the moment as the mining and

coal seam gas industries are booming. In addition we know from recent experience that we have to improve our storm-water protection and drainage systems to cope with more severe weather conditions in the future which I am sure will bode well for some of the new PP non pressure systems.

One important future international event for us is hosting the ISO TC138 Committees on plastic pipe systems here in Sydney this coming October. This will enable our members to meet many of the technical experts from all over the plastics world and discuss some of the latest developments and I am sure our visitors will also benefit from the knowledge and experience that we have gained in our plastic pipes industry in Australia.

To find out more about the plastics pipes industry in Australia, visit www.pipa.com.au and for more info on the coal seam gas business, visit www.apia.net.au

Kabra Extrusiontechnik is a leading manufacturer of plastics extrusion machinery in India and part of the Kolsite Group. They offer state of the art single and twin screw extrusion lines for PO pipes, PVC

Technical discussions with Kabra Extrusiontechnik

Large diameter PO twin walled pipe produced on a Corma - Kabra production line

pipes, CPVC pipes, LLDPE pipes with drip inserts, profiles, pellets, mono and multilayer blown films etc. and already have more than 9000 installations around the globe in more than 70 countries.

For single and twin walled PO pipe equipment Kabra has an agreement with Corma of Canada and can supply complete installations to produce pipes up to 1800 mm diameter. Recently Kabra’s management team visited Borouge’s office in Mumbai to discuss the benefits of using the BorECO range of PP-B materials to produce high quality pipes for non pressure sewage and drainage applications. The availability of this material in India will make a major contribution to improving the country’s sewage and wastewater management systems.

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At the end of July NGO HEED organised an inauguration ceremony for the new water supply systems in the mountains of Pakistan. This took the form of a 'Water Conservation Awareness Walk' during which they visited two of the villages served in the projects.

Accompanied by Farrukh Naeem from the Islamabad office of the Arfeen Group, HEED President, Mubashir Niaz hiked to the village of Kandol, which was one of the villages helped in the first phase of the project. Despite the toughness of the route it was deemed really worthwhile as Mubashir said; “Staying at Kandol overnight allowed us to see at first-hand that the network laid in 2010 was still working well and it was a great feeling to take an early morning shower in water supplied through our pipework.”

In the morning they were joined by some of the villagers and children from the local primary school at the

main water distribution tank. Some of the children had placards that carried different messages to encourage water conservation and they chanted slogans as they walked from the tank into the village. The inauguration ceremony for the water supply systems was combined with the inauguration of the local school which had also been constructed by HEED.

Several important officials from the Neelum Valley Development Board and Education Departments attended the ceremony together with the community leaders from the villages. The Minister for Development sent his apologies for his absence but he extended his special thanks to Borouge and HEED for their generosity and commitment to the water supply projects. He said that he had been very happy to learn of the innovative “cable pipe bridge” development and he expressed his desire that this would be shared with a wide audience so that others could

Inauguration of new water supply systems in Pakistan

Some of the school children at Kandol carrying placards with messages of water conservation

Mubashir Niaz receives a vote of thanks from some of the villagers

adopt a similar solution. The community leaders also thanked the partners for making a real improvement to their lives through the installations which freed up women and children from the task of collecting water and allowed them to focus on other activities.

After the morning session in Kandol the group moved on to the village of Jandar Seri where they saw the “cable pipe bridge” still functioning and conveying the fresh spring water across the valley. The villagers were pleased to report that despite the very cold weather during the winter months the flow of water had been uninterrupted.

As this was during Ramadan, at sunset HEED arranged for food for the whole community so that they could break their fast together in celebration of the success of the water supply projects.

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Borouge sponsors Middle East Pipelines Conference

The delegates to the 12th annual MEPIPES Conference at Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Abu Dhabi

Borouge was one of the main sponsors of the 12th annual MEPIPES Conference which took place at Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Abu Dhabi in late May. Around 80 delegates attended the packed three day programme of presentations and workshop sessions. Borouge also had a table top stand in the networking area for introducing the delegates to Borcoat solutions and new innovations for steel pipe protection.

In one of the main conference sessions entitled “Best practices in pipeline project management & engineering” Borouge Sales Manager Mario Andrade presented a paper entitled, “Sustainable three-layer polyethylene system to protect the mega Ras Al Khair

– Riyadh water pipelines”. This new twin steel water pipeline will be used to transfer desalinated water from the Ras Al Khair Integrated Water and Power Plant, 70 km northeast of Jubail, to Riyadh city. The total length of the pipeline was more than 910 km and it ranged in diameter from 48 inches (1.2m) to 72 inches (1.8 m). The Three Layer Polyethylene (3LPE) coating system from Borouge was selected by the project consultants, ILF Consulting Engineers, in order to protect these critical assets. These coating systems have a very successful track record with Saline Water Conversion Company (SWCC) in protecting many of their other steel pipelines from external corrosion and mechanical impact damage during storage, handling, transport and operation.

On day three, in Workshop B, Borouge Application Marketing Manager Chanchal Dasgupta described how the new Wehocoat field joint coating system can eliminate what was a potential weak link in the 3 layer PE steel pipe coating systems. The complete Wehocoat package includes a specially designed, four-wheel drive truck which carries a crane suitable for moving the automated robot onto the pipe. The robot carries out induction heating followed by the application of epoxy and PE in a sequential manner. The special PE developed by Borealis is a reactive top coat which has excellent bonding to the epoxy and also provides the mechanical protection of a top coat. This specially developed polymer Borcoat™ME3000FC in pellet form is fed into an extruder on the truck which plasticises it and refills the robot's material-buffer cylinder whilst moving from one joint to the next.

The Wehocoat field joint system was given a very good work out on the Mäntsälä-Siuntio pipeline in southern Finland between September 2010 and April 2011, during which time there was half a metre of snow on the ground and temperatures down to -20°C. The system could carry out 3 field joint coatings in an hour in field conditions. The 90km, 20 inch (508mm outer diameter) gas transmission pipeline between Mäntsälä and Siuntio is owned and operated by Gasum Oy who are extending and developing their natural gas network in Finland. The Wehocoat Field Joint system was used to coat over 1000 joints on the project including sections which were subsequently installed using horizontal directional drilling. The innovative Wehocoat field joint coating system meets practically all the requirements of “factory applied linepipe coating” thereby eliminating the potential weak spot in a coated pipeline.

The twin water pipelines joining Ras Al Khair on the coast to the capital city of Riyadh

The Wehocoat field joint coating system in action

21

The safety of buried pipeline systems was high on the agenda at the Underground Pipeline Development Forum in Beijing in June. According to China Association of City Planning (CACP) there are over 1.35 million kilometres of underground pipelines for gas and water and around 3 million

Safety concerns at the Underground Pipeline Development Forum in Beijing

Delegates at the Underground Pipeline Development Forum in Beijing

kilometres of power cables under China’s cities. However in 2 out of 3 cities there is little detailed information about the location or the nature of these underground pipelines, which is a major potential safety risk for the public and for the network itself. Other factors that influence safety include poor design, old corroded pipelines without any proper maintenance, poor installation and the use of poor quality pipeline materials.

As a result many accidents occur each year, resulting in the loss of water and/or power, the collapse of roads due to water erosion and explosions caused by gas leakage. The CACP estimated that between 2008 and 2010 there were over a thousand major pipeline incidents in China’s cities, which costs the country over one billion RMB (US$ 150 million) to repair each year. To reduce the risk the CACP proposed that a standardised database be generated

for all underground networks and regular monitoring systems established in each city. In the future they will also pay more attention to pipeline construction all along the value chain including of course the correct pipeline material selection.

This was an ideal opportunity to introduce the delegates to BorSafe High Stress Crack Resistant (HSCR) PE100 materials for use with no-dig technology. Borouge’s Application Marketing Manager Cindy Wang stressed the extra safety provided by this material from external notches and defects introduced during installation or from external point loads from stones or other debris in the surrounding soil. She also emphasized the importance of using pipes produced from a fully classified pre-compounded material in all construction projects as this was the only way to ensure consistent pipe performance and durability.

Indian Oil and Gas Company announces it is to invest heavily to exploit new fieldsThe Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) of India is a multi-national company and one of the largest Asian based oil and gas exploration and production companies. It currently produces around 30% of India's crude oil requirement and around 81% of its natural gas. Recently the company announced that it was to invest nearly US$5 billion to bring a total of a dozen marginal oil and gas fields in India into production by 2014 which will

significantly increase local demand for coated steel pipe systems.

Whilst some of the projects have already been started many of them are only at the design phase. So far orders for coated steel pipes have been received for two projects by the coating companies Jindal and PSL and in both projects the 3 layer PE coating will be provided by Borouge due to its excellent track record and high level of technical support.

The ONGC Board has also approved an R&D pilot project for the exploration of Shale Gas in the Damodar River Basin. Shale gas has become an important source of fuel in many countries and currently accounts for 20% of the gas requirements in the USA. Although many of these resources have been known for a number of years it is only relatively recently that fracturing and directional drilling techniques have been developed to a commercial stage.

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Michael Vogt sees an accelerating market for PP-B materials

You have joined Borouge at an exciting time following the recent expansion of the plant and the restructuring of the organisation to meet the challenges of the further expansion in 2015 – have you any reflections on your first month in the seat?

Yes, these are challenging times in general and especially for Borouge. The growth challenge for Borouge is a very exciting one and I am very happy to be part of it and to be able to contribute to the solutions. Moving forward, being innovative and developing new markets with new products has always been my interest, which fits well with the Borouge vision of “Shaping the Future with Plastics”. The first couple of weeks have been very exciting thanks to the

warm welcome and support by my new colleagues and with the training opportunities provided it was a very smooth start. Meeting customers and other decision makers to promote our BorECO based solutions for non-pressure systems and coordinating the newly founded gravity pipe Application Marketing Team (AMT) will be my core tasks for the next couple of months. The cross-regional and cross-functional structure of the ATM’s will enable us to further improve the coordination of all ongoing activities, to share and distribute information even faster and to increase the leverage on the existing knowledge and experience pool within Borouge.

Our new Innovation Centre (IC) will become another key element in the development of this application segment. Using PP for non-pressure

(gravity) piping systems is a new concept in most of our regions and it is even still a relatively new development in Europe particularly in the larger diameters. Borouge is pioneering this development and generating a lot of data to enable us to answer all the questions coming from customers as well as end-users or engineering companies. The IC will have a key role to further optimise and expand our product portfolio for this application segment.

Sanitation is obviously a big challenge in Asia and much still needs to be done to meet the United Nations Millennium Goals – how do you see PP-B systems helping in reaching these targets?

Many of the sewage systems in our regions were built over a hundred years ago and it is hardly surprising

Michael Vogt joined the Borouge Pipe Team in July as Application Marketing Manager for the Sewage and Drainage markets. In this interview he gives some of his early impressions of the challenge ahead and the market potential for PP-B materials in the Middle East and Asia.

Michael is already well known to the plastics pipe market in Asia having spent 5 years as the Market Manager Pipe for Basell in Hong Kong. In this role he was responsible for the company’s polyethylene, polypropylene and polybutylene pipe business in the Asia-Pacific region including sales, marketing and technical service.

After receiving his mechanical engineering degree with specialisation in plastic processing at the University of Aachen, Michael started his professional career in1989 with BASF in Germany. After spending the first five years in their plastic processing laboratory he moved to Technical Service covering all the resins for cross-linked pipes globally and PE80 and PE100 materials for gas pipe applications and steel pipe coating with a focus on Eastern Europe. During that time Michael was also active in DIN and ISO standardisation committees. In 2003 he became the Business Development Manager Pipe with the focus on end-user contacts and taking care of innovation projects from the commercial side. Now Michael has joined Borouge in Singapore to lead the market development in the sewage and drainage market and in particular to expand the market for Borouge’s PP-B materials in non-pressure applications.

Michael VogtApplication Marketing Manager for Sewage and Drainage systems

23

that they cannot cope with the current large urbanised population. Many kilometres of new pipelines need to be installed and financing these new systems will be a challenge. We need to demonstrate that by using PP-B systems more can be done with the same amount of money as the systems are easier and faster to install compared to the old generation of heavy concrete or clay pipes. Plastic manholes can also be installed in a fraction of the time that is required to build a brick manhole reducing the cost and the length of time that the life of the city is disturbed. China is an ideal example of a country where they know what needs to be done and are prepared to provide the funds but are unable to keep up with the construction timetable – here PP-B systems would help them meet their targets. Outside the urbanised areas there is a strong need to improve sanitation conditions and this will be another driver for the use of PP based systems. Even for decentralised sanitation solutions PP based concepts often provide more benefits than those using other materials.

Most countries still use the old generation of materials in their sewers and the engineers seem more conservative in their views in this sector than any others – do you see any way to make a breakthrough in this market with PP-B materials?

We need to strongly promote the benefits of corrosion resistant PP-B sewage systems and show by example how these flexible materials are more able to deal with the challenges of the sewage and wastewater systems we are installing today. To convince the conservative decision makers in this industry we will need to apply a multi-level approach. Firstly we need to create and provide the necessary data which is required by engineers and utilities to design the network; here we can leverage on the experience and data from Europe. Secondly we need to get the PP-B materials established in the national specification and standards. This will be a big challenge as in most countries no specific standards for PP gravity piping systems exist and PP is not included in the existing regulations covering

PVC, PE, GRP, Ductile Iron, Clay and Concrete. Referring to the European (EN) or ISO standards helps but it is not enough - successful installations and case studies are required to prove that PP systems can deliver what has been promised. This should help to create the necessary market pull. At the same time we will have to support our customers in developing well designed PP piping systems. Due to the fact that PP is a relatively new material for such systems the production technologies are not yet widely available and it will be necessary to develop close cooperation with selected machine manufactures to tackle this matter. Only if our customers are able to offer complete system solutions will we be successful in the long term in creating a sustainable market push. Considering that we have highly skilled pipe experts in the Borouge pipe team and the well established contacts we have to the most important machine manufactures in China, India, North America and Europe I’m optimistic that our chances for success are very high.

Storm-water management seems to be growing in importance around the region particularly following the devastating floods in Pakistan, Thailand

and the Philippines. Do you see PP-B pipes and related products playing an important role in this area?

There have been a string of disasters around the world and all the indications are that these events are going to increase in frequency in coming years. There are already a number of companies producing plastic products for rain water harvesting and storm water management but we need to ensure that the complete integrated systems are available in plastic materials. This is more complicated than for water distribution or sewage collection but here I believe we need to work with all the members of the value chain to make sure all the products are available and easily sourced to reduce the vulnerability of our cities to flooding. In this application segment there is the greatest need for new innovative solutions but Borouge’s drive for innovation together with the available capacities and our commitment to the water management segment will make us the preferred partner for customers to develop new solutions. Also here we can leverage on experience

Installing the 2600 mm sewerage system in Schwarzenberg, Germany produced from spirally wound BorECO BA212E by Bauku GmbH

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gained in Europe and can facilitate the cross-regional transfer of knowledge.

We have started to see the value of PP-B pipes in large industrial developments, such as the large diameter sea outfalls in the Middle East and for the corrosion protection of large process tanks in India – do you see many new similar opportunities for the future?

These are just the starting point for many new industrial uses for plastics in industrial developments. PP is already well known in industrial applications but mainly for smaller size tanks and fluid transportation systems. The recent developments in manufacturing technologies like spiral wound pipes and the work done by one of our customers together with us to optimize welding conditions for this new type of high stiffness PP-B grades like our BorECO BA212E will open the door for even greater use of PP in larger sized constructions. Clearly you are confident that there are plenty of opportunities for PP-B pipes and associated products in

infrastructure and industry – do you see any other opportunities in new market areas?

Yes, there are a number of new areas where PP-B materials can play a role – we have already seen the use of large diameter PP-B pipes used in a cooling system for a college in Australia and for large diameter spiral wound tanks in India and there will be many other

applications where a high stiffness, corrosion resistant plastic material will provide many benefits. Irrigation water transportation by gravity in open channels is common practice in many parts of the world but the water loss by evaporation cannot be accepted in the future due to increasing scarcity. Upgrading the existing channels by inserting PP pipes could be a possible solution in many areas of the world.

The AquaPro system produced by Vinidex in Australia from BorECO BA212E is designed to be part of a storm water retention system

The Shanghai plastic pipes market continues to grow

Jointing and installing a 630 mm diameter BorSafe PN10 water supply pipe for Shanghai Expo 2010

Shanghai is the largest city in China with a population of over 23 million people. Located on the Yangtze River delta on the country’s east coast it is the busiest container port in the world and the commercial and financial heart of China. Shanghai’s unique commercial history sets it aside from much of the rest of China and means that organisations are already in place, who can gather reliable data on different products and market sectors.

In a recent article by Gao Ming and Shao Cangwei of the Shanghai

25

Table 1. Plastic pipe usage in Shanghai by material (kt)

Fig. 1. Plastic pipe usage by application (kt)

Material 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

PVC 219.8 219.4 206.5 228.4 201.3

PE 68.5 102.6 80.2 92.7 93.2

PP 52.5 68.5 51.2 67.2 82.9

Others 47 17.7 74.7 49.5 70.7

Total 387.8 408.2 412.06 437.8 448.1

Table 2. Pipe quality results – shown as the percentage of good pipes

Year Drainage Water Supply Conduit Rain water pipe/fitting

OverallPipe Fitting Pipe Fitting Pipe Fitting

2006-2010 91.9 90.6 94.8 94.6 96.1 100 93.8 94

2011 89.68 97.3 90.76 96.48 98.8 100 93.98 94.16

Chemical Construction Materials Association they show that in Shanghai the overall market for plastic pipes has increased from 388 to 448 ktons over the last 5 years (see table 1). This growth has not been smooth due to the many major projects within that time period, such as preparing for Shanghai Expo 2010 when many new pipelines were constructed. Generally the growth in PO pipe materials has been stronger than the overall trend suggests as the PVC pipe market has been relatively static. However in 2011 PVC pipe still dominates the market with a 45% share followed by PE (20%) and PP (18%).

The use of plastic pipes in the different application areas is shown in Fig. 1. The “big three” by volume of material are water supply (39%), drainage (26%) and sewage (22%), which is not unexpected as they are all applications where large diameter pipes are common. The market for domestic and commercial heating pipes is relatively small at only 2% of the volume, but these pipes, which are mainly of PP-R or PE-RT are relatively small in diameter and therefore this volume still represents many metres of pipe.

The quality of pipes for the construction industry is also checked by collecting samples and testing them against the appropriate standards. In 2011 a total of 6000 samples were collected and tested with an overall pass rate of just over 94%. This is a very good level, certainly compared to many other areas in China, but as the result of a major fire in a high rise building in 2011 there are plans to increase the level of quality surveillance of construction products. This will take the form of developing a “black list” of companies that supply substandard products, which will be published twice a year by the Shanghai Construction Safety and Quality Inspection Department. There will also be a “short list” of recommended suppliers which will be published

annually and used by purchasers for government housing developments and other major projects in Shanghai.

Clearly in Shanghai the demand for plastic pipes remains strong and the push for quality products is even stronger. In 2012 there are a total of 95 major projects planned at a value of US$18.5 billion so demand is expected to increase further. Also in 2012 it is planned that plastic manholes for sewage and drainage pipeline systems will be formally approved in the Shanghai area and the products included in future data from the Shanghai Chemical Construction

Material Association. This is a very positive move as the widespread use of plastic manholes will considerably speed up the rate of sewage and drainage system construction and help the city achieve even higher environmental standards.

NB: This article is based on a paper by Gao Ming and Shao Cangwei of the Shanghai Chemical Construction Material Association which was presented at the China Plastics Pipe Annual Conference in May, 2012

BorPipe

26

In June 2012, Borouge and Borealis jointly sponsored the two-day Pipelines India Summit in New Delhi and took a table top stand. The increasing activity in the oil and gas market in the Indian sub-continent and a good technical programme attracted over 80 participants from the Indian and overseas pipeline Industry.

With a growing population and increasing spending power many countries in the Indian sub-continent are now looking towards natural gas as a cheap and clean alternative to conventional fuels like coal. Around 200 new cities in India have been identified for gas distribution networks

Composite cross-linked PE (PEX) pipes are used in a number of countries for domestic and

Borouge and Borealis sponsor Pipelines India Summit

Self-curing PEX for outer layer of multilayer composite pipes

Thomas Stark of Borealis presenting his paper at the Pipelines India Summit

Typical multilayer composite PEX pipe used in hot water heating systems

by 2015 and according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas the demand for gas is planned to more than double by 2017 and triple by 2022. The Indian Oil Corporation also plans expand their network and lay more than 20 new pipelines by 2015, with an investment of US$ 1.5 billion. Other major projects like Gujarat State Petronet’s Mehsana-Bhatinda-Jammu and Mallavaram-Bhilwada gas pipeline projects will also increase the pipeline transport network in India.

In one of the technical sessions Thomas Stark, Application Development and Technical Service Engineer from Borealis made a presentation on “A new

commercial hot water heating systems. For this demanding high temperature application pipes will typically comprise of three structural layers - an inner layer of PEX, a middle layer of aluminium or EVOH to act as a barrier to oxygen and an outer layer of PEX material. Adhesive layers are used to bond each of the structural layers together, making five in all.

The outer layer is of course the last to be added and is usually a grafted PEX-b material to provide the best temperature and external protection for the finished pipe. Most PEX-b materials are processed on a single screw extruder and because grafted PEX-b materials can be very moisture sensitive this can lead to pre-crosslinking of the material and subsequent problems within the

extrusion process. Also the pipes then need to be heat treated with hot water or steam for approximately 8 hours to achieve the required degree of crosslinking which is both expensive and time consuming. Now Borealis have launched BorPEX ME2578, as a dedicated outer layer for composite pipes for hot water heating systems. When this material is used in combination with Ambicat LE4476 no post heat treatment is required to cure the outer layer which increases production efficiency and results in less production downtime and lower energy consumption than with conventional PEX-b materials. Since BorPEX ME2578 is a co-polymerised PEX-b with silane added during the polymerisation process the material is more consistent and much easier to process which

27

Field Joint Coating technology for 3LPO coated pipes”. This new technology, called WEHOCOAT - BORCOAT uses a new PE material and an application robot, which can carry out field joint coating on site by sequential induction heating, application of FBE and molten PE in an automated way, thereby producing a field joint which can meet most of the requirements of the specification for the line pipe coating. This innovation which virtually eliminates the quality gap between factory applied coating and field joint coating, was developed by Borealis jointly working with KWH, Finland, a reputed machinery manufacturer.

There were many other very interesting presentations including those from GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd, Green Gas Ltd, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board and Adani Gas.

Renovating leaking water mains in the centre of large busy cities

is never easy but the use of PE100 pipes and No-Dig technologies

considerably reduces the resulting congestion. In China’s capital

city of Beijing alone there are estimated to be over 3,000km of cast

iron pipes that were installed before 1980 and need to be replaced or

relined to improve the quality of the water supply. This is just one part

of a government countrywide programme initiated in 2010 with the

total cost of renovation expected to reach US$65 billion.

In one of the recent projects in the southern part of the city of Beijing

over 6km of 1,200mm cast iron pipe was lined with 1,000mm diameter

SDR 21 PE100 pipe. To ensure the long term durability of the system

the lining pipe was manufactured from BorSafe HE3490-LS pre-

compounded PE100 material by Borouge’s customer Zhuozhou

Chinaust. The construction was carried out by the HeBei SuAn group

who have considerable experience in using No-Dig technology.

To further reduce the disturbance to the traffic and the local residents

the pipes were delivered to the site each evening. The pipes were

then butt welded into strings and drawn into the old main by a winch

at insertion pits which were 200 to 300 metres apart. A team from

Zhuozhou Chinaust were on site to ensure that the butt welded joints

were correctly made and the pulling operations went smoothly

without over stressing any of the pipes or pipe joints.

BorSafe PE100 pipes and No-Dig technology renovate leaking water mains in Beijing

Work site of one of the water main renovation projects in Beijing city

Pulling the BorSafe PE100 pipe through the old 1200 mm diameter cast iron water main

results in a very smooth and glossy outer surface. The self crosslinking mechanism also ensures even curing throughout the outer layer that consistently meets the minimum requirement of 65% as required in the ISO 21003 specification. This considerably improves the quality of the product as it reduces the risk that some parts of the outer layer are not adequately crosslinked.

BorPEX ME2578 can be used as an alternative to your current PEX-b material to reduce production complexity and costs or to upgrade your current product, where a non crosslinked layer is being used, to provide greater protection through improved impact and environmental stress crack resistance. Contact your local Borouge representatives for more details.

BorPipe

28

Over two thousand politicians, CEOs, scientists and leaders of international organisations from more than 100 nations gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, in the last week of August for the annual World Water Week, which this year focused on “Water and Food Security”.

Today, over 900 million people suffer from hunger, and two billion more face serious health risks from undernourishment. By 2050 demand for food is projected to increase by 70% and, without intervention, untenable pressure on water resources in many regions in the world will threaten food and water security. Clearly we need to work together to increase the water - efficiency of food production or more “Crops per Drop” and cut the high level of waste within the food chain.

Speaking in the opening session José Graziano da Silva, Director-

“Water & Food Security”, Borouge and Borealis at Stockholm Water Week

General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), stated that: “The numbers show that agriculture is a thirsty activity - but that also means that agriculture holds the key to sustainable water use. Throughout the world, 2.6 billion small-scale producers till the land, raise animals and fish. They are the main providers of food in the developing world. If we want them to produce more sustainably, preserving natural resources, adapting to and contributing to the mitigation of climate change, we need to help them. We cannot expect them to do it alone.”

Also speaking at the opening session, Dr. Colin Chartres, Director-General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the 2012 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, said: “Feeding over 9 billion people by 2050 is possible, but we have to reflect on the cost to the environment in terms of water withdrawals and land resources. Furthermore it will put phenomenal pressure on ecosystem services on which our society depends. Saving water by reducing food waste, increasing productivity, plant breeding and waste water recycling are critical to all of us.”

During the week over 100 sessions took place to debate possible solutions to ensure that the planet’s limited water resources can meet the needs of growing economies and support a healthy global population. In one session Hugo Hammar of Borealis presented a paper on the benefits of micro irrigation systems in reducing water consumption whilst increasing crop production. He described how Borouge and Borealis are working together in irrigation and have developed a three phase approach to build expertise, support and promote

best practices and transfer knowledge to some of the poorest farmers in the water scarce areas of the world. He presented the results from the study of the Italian agricultural industry supported by Borealis, which showed that using modern irrigation systems and water management policies it could bring an additional US$ 10 billion to the economy over a 30 year period. This money results from the reduced environmental impact due to the use of less water and the increased crop yield using micro irrigation systems plus the benefits accrued from piping the water delivery system which today comprises mainly a network of open trenches that lose over 30% of the water transported by evaporation. He also explained how working with the International Development Enterprises in India, Borouge are planning to help some of the small subsistence farmers by improving the quality and the efficiency of production of low cost irrigation systems. In fact small farmers are holding the key to major water savings in many of the developing countries as there are so many of them (e.g. in India 80% of the farmers operate on less than 2 hectares of land) and by introducing basic irrigation systems to them large overall water savings can be achieved.

Most of the large food production companies were present at the event and one of them, PepsiCO won the Stockholm Industry Award for its efforts to increase water efficiency. In 2011 the global food and beverage company conserved nearly 16 billion litres of water compared to the 2006 baseline, through the application of water saving equipment and technologies, creative recycling and re-use, and by deploying a water management system throughout its manufacturing facilities.

Hugo Hammar of Borealis presenting his paper at Stockholm Water Week

29

On Thursday evening at the Royal Banquet H.M. King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden presented the Stockholm Water Prize to the International Water Management Institute, IWMI, for their work to improve water management in agriculture, enhance food security, protect environmental health and alleviate poverty in developing countries. The Stockholm Water Prize Nominating Committee described the international research institute as "the foremost organisation in agricultural water management", and credited their work to influence the creation of new policies and investments in agriculture to enable more productive use of water and enhance food security around the world. Dr. Colin Chartres, Director General of IWMI, received the prize on behalf of the organisation. Upon being handed the prize, he said: "This award really recognises the sustained contributions of IWMI staff and partners over the last 27 years. They have put in a great effort, often under conditions of considerable hardship and have still employed scientific rigour in their work leading to many papers in esteemed journals as well as undoubted on-ground success in combating food insecurity, poverty and improving natural resources management."

The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1991 and presented annually by the Stockholm International Water Institute to an individual, organisation or institution for outstanding water-related achievements. Founders of the Stockholm Water Prize are Swedish and international companies in collaboration with the City of Stockholm. They are: Bacardi, Borealis & Borouge, DuPont, ERV, Fujitsu, Grundfos, Hewlett Packard, Kemira, KPMG Sweden, Ragn-Sells, Scandic, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Siemens AG, SJ (Swedish Railways), Snecma/Safran, Uponor, Water Environment Federation, Xylem and Ålandsbanken Sverige.

Cable ducting pipes produced from BorECO BA415E on site in China

With increasing urbanization, more and more underground cables are being installed in China. Statistics show that for every 1% increase in the population of a city the demand for cables rises by around 1.8%. With less space available overhead lines are now being abandoned and more wires and cables are being buried underground, especially in the large cities. To install these cables underground many kilometres of conduit or cable ducting are required to both protect the cables from external damage and to enable new cables to be easily installed without digging up the street.

The materials used for the production of these cable ducts must be of a high stiffness with good impact strength and capable of maintaining performance at elevated temperatures. For example cable ducting for high voltage cables needs to be able to work continuously at temperatures of up to 70°C which is too high for HDPE but BorECO PP-B material fits the bill perfectly.

Shanghai Era is a company that specialises in the manufacture of underground pipe systems and they have recently been awarded several projects to supply cable ducting for wire and cable installations using trenchless technology. A number of these projects are for electrical power grid installation and upgrading in the cities of Taiyuan (13km of 200mm ducting), Shanghai (22km of 160mm ducting) and Jiangsu province (10km of 110mm and 12km of 200mm ducting). The ducting pipes require a ring stiffness of up to 32KN/m², whilst maintaining good impact strength and flexibility. The Vicat softening temperature must be at least 150°C so that the conduit can still maintain good mechanical strength at the higher temperatures generated by the current flowing through the cables. Borouge BorECO BA415E was chosen because it fulfils all the above requirements without the use of any additional “fillers” which can reduce both the impact strength and the long term durability of the system.

Cable ducting produced from BorECO BA415E provides higher ring stiffness than alternative materials such as HDPE and can operate continuously at the higher temperatures required for the underground electrical power cables. They therefore provide an ideal solution to the growing demand for underground cables in China’s rapidly growing cities.

BorECO PP-B ideal for the cable ducting needs in China

BorPipe

30

Agriculture is a vital part of the Chinese economy employing over 300 million farmers. Although China ranks first in worldwide farm output it also has a large population of 1.35 billion people and limited available arable land and therefore it must make each hectare of productive land count. In simple terms China is trying to produce enough food for 22% of the world’s population on only 10% of the world’s land suitable for agriculture – which is quite a challenge. Also because of increasingly frequent droughts water scarcity is becoming a serious threat to the future of the industry with some knowledgeable sources predicting that by 2030, the water deficiency in Chinese agriculture will reach about 500 to 700 billion m³ per annum.

Still in many arid or semi-arid regions of China a lot of water is wasted in inefficient irrigation schemes as only one third of the cultivated land is served by modern micro-irrigation systems. The Chinese government are determined to change this and modernise farming methods and in their latest 5 year plan they anticipate that the land area covered by modern micro-irrigation systems will increase

Reducing the demand for water in China’s agricultural industry

by 7 million hectares. This is a major change that will be largely funded by the government through subsidies to local farmers and if achieved will require a very significant increase in the demand for micro-irrigation systems and production equipment.

Armed with this information the Borouge irrigation team have recently started to examine the potential market for drip irrigation systems in China, to substantiate the figures and also to see how the market needs differ from those in India or other parts of the world. The overall data gathered so far suggests that there are as many as 500 companies producing drip irrigation systems and this number is increasing relatively quickly. However most of these companies are small with one or two lines producing relatively poor quality products for the local market. Of the medium to large sized higher quality producers there are only around 20 companies at present in the market.

A typical example of the medium sized quality producer of drip irrigation systems is Ming Wang, who, following an earlier contact at Chinaplas in Shanghai, was visited by the team earlier this summer. This company, founded in 1985, now focuses on the

Efficient modern irrigation systems reduce water consumption and increase crop yields

The Borouge irrigation team visiting the Ming Wang factory

production of both drip irrigation systems and the equipment to produce these systems. Currently they have six production lines themselves producing their own drip irrigation systems and have just completed the construction of extrusion lines for factories in China, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

Another supplier of equipment is Xin Sa Cheng who started production 8 years ago and currently sells around 40 lines per year of which 20% are for the home market and the remaining 80% are exported all around the world. They produce both flat and cylindrical drip irrigation equipment and in the last 4 years they have supplied 15 new production lines to the dynamic irrigation market in India.

Clearly the market for drip irrigation systems in China is growing and the number of producers and extrusion lines are increasing. As Cindy Wang Borouge’s Application Marketing Manager for China stated; “We certainly see growth in the market but as yet the growth is not on the same level as in India. However if the government’s plans are to be fulfilled this growth will need to accelerate over the next one to two years and as we know things can change very quickly in China today.”

31

Calendar of Pipe Events - 2012/13Event

Oil & Gas Review Summit, Mumbai

KEBS Seminar

IWA World Water Congress, Busan, Korea

Kenya Plast, Nairobi, Kenya

SAPPMA 2012

Plastic Pipes XVI, Barcelona, Spain

The 2nd Shanghai Building Water– Water Treatment Tech. and Equip., Shanghai

Water Loss Asia/Trenchless Technology Asia 2012, Bangkok

Global Pipeline Construction, Integrity and Maintenance, Dubai

NACE Corrosion Conference, Shanghai

APIA Convention , Brisbane, Australia

Dubai Plast Pro 2012, Dubai

Int. Conference on Pipelines & Trenchless Technology (ICPTT 2012), Wuhan

Water Expo China/Water & Membrane China, Beijing

The Big 5 Exhibition, Dubai

GPPA Conference

VietWater 2012, Hanoi, Vietnam

Saudi Water and Power Forum, Jeddah

ArabPlast 2013, Dubai

International Water Summit, Abu Dhabi

Indonesian Water & Wastewater Expo and Forum 2013, Jakarta, Indonesia

2nd IWA Water Research Conference, Singapore

No-Dig India 2013, New Delhi

India Water Expo, Ahmedabad, India

Buildex (construction), Dammam. KSA

Water India 2013, New Delhi

Pipeline Coating 2013, Vienna

3rd Asia Pacific Regional Water Conference & Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur

Everythingaboutwater Expo 2013, Chennai, India

Big 5, Jeddah, KSA

Municipalika 2013, Delhi

Trenchless Middle East, Dubai

World Water Day 2013

AGRAME, Dubai

Date

6-7 September

13-14 September

16-21 September

17-19 September

18 September

24-26 September

26-28 September

3-5 October

8-10 October

12-14 October

13-16 October

15-17 October

19-22 October

29 – 31 October

5-8 November

7 November

6-8 November

2-4 December

7-10 January

15-17 January

15-17 January

20-23 January

30 Jan-1 Feb

1-3 February

3-6 February

15-17 February

18-20 February

26-28 February

28 Feb-2 Mar

9-15 March

13-15 March

18-19 March

22 March

26-28 March

More information

www.oilasia.com

www.kebs.org

www.iwa2012busan.org

www.kenyaplast.com

www.sappma.co.za

www.ppxvi.org

www.bwtexpo.com

www.waterlossasia.com

www.knowledgeexpansion.com

www.nace-shanghai.org

www.apia.net.au

www.ihs.com/DubaiPlastPro2012

www.icptt.org

www.waterexpochina.com

www.thebig5.ae

www.yourppa.org

www.vietwater.com

www.ksawpf.com

www.arabplast.info

www.internationalwatersummit.com

iwwef.com/program.php

www.waterresearchconference.com

www.indsst.com

www.indiawaterexpo.com

www.saudibuildex.com

www.amiplastics.com

www.eawater.com

www.thebig5saudi.com

www.municipalika.com

www.ie-expo.com

www.unwater.org

www.agramiddleeast.com

Disclaimer The information contained herein is to our knowledge accurate and reliable as of the date of publication. Borouge extends no warranties and makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and assumes no responsibility regarding the consequences of its use or for any printing errors. Our products are intended for sale to industrial and commercial customers. It is the customer's responsibility to inspect and test our products in order to satisfy himself as to the suitability of the products for the customer's particular purpose. The customer is also responsible for the appropriate, safe and legal use, processing and handling of our products. Nothing herein shall constitute any warranty (express or implied, of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, compliance with performance indicators, conformity to samples or models, non-infringement or otherwise), nor is protection from any

law or patent to be inferred. No statement herein shall be construed as an endorsement of any product or process. No one is authorised to make representations or give warranties or assume any other liabilities on behalf of Borouge except if in writing and signed by a duly authorised Borouge employee. Insofar as products supplied by Borouge are used in conjunction with third party materials, it is the responsibility of the customer to obtain all necessary information relating to the third party materials and ensure that Borouge products when used together with these materials are suitable for the customer's particular purpose. No liability can be accepted in respect of the use of Borouge products in conjunction with other materials. The information contained herein relates exclusively to our products when not used in conjunction with any third party materials.

Borstar is a registered trademark of Borealis group. Borcoat, BorECO, BorPEX, BorSafe and Water for the World are trademarks of Borealis group.

BorPipe

For more information contact: info@borouge.com or visit www.borouge.com

Borouge Pte Ltd 1 George Street #18-01 Singapore 049145Tel: +65 6275 4100 Fax: +65 6377 1233 Email: info@borouge.com©

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Our List of Pipe Agents and Distributors

EgyptTHE UNITED INTERNATIONAL TRADE CO126 El Nil StreetAgouza, Cairo, Egypt.Tel: 20-2-3760-5599Fax: 20-2-3349-2129Email: Fouad.hassib@hassib-group.comContact: Fouad Hassib, Managing Director

KenyaDESBRO KENYA LIMITED“Desbro House” Kampala RoadIndustrial Area, PO Box 42469 0100Nairobi, Kenya.Tel: 254-20-537-273, 254-20-537-275254-20-557-600 / 557-613 / 557-616 / 557-469Fax: 254-20-557-446 / 555-956Email: sennik@desbrokenya.comContact: Suman Sennik, Managing Director

KoreaBMC LTDEunsung B/D 3Fl466-10, Jangan-DongDongdaemun-Ku, Seoul, Korea.Tel: 82-2-2245-6910Fax: 82-2-2245-6913Email: jhwansim@chol.comContact: J. H. Sim, President

NepalLUCKY INTERNATIONAL PVT LTDG.P.O. Box 5009, SwayambhuKathmandu, Nepal.Tel: 977-1-4272-509, 977-1-4279-791, 977-98-1022-837Fax: 977-1-4279-877Email: luckyintl@info.com.npContact: Kiran Raghubanshi, Managing Director

PakistanARFEEN INTERNATIONAL PVT LTDThe World Trade CentreTower “A”, 3rd FloorKhayaban – e – RoomiClifton, Block No. 5Karachi 75600, Pakistan.Tel: 92-21-587 2783-4 / 587 2161-3 / 587 2714Fax: 92-21-587 2165Email: info@arfeengroup.comContact: Emran Khan, Managing Director

TaiwanSCHEMPLAR COMPANY LTD11/F, 150 Fu Shing North RoadTaipei, Republic of China, Taiwan.Tel: 886-2-2713-7533Fax: 886-2-2712-2423Email: edwin.hsu@schemplar.com.twContact: Edwin Hsu, Managing Director

ThailandPLASCHEM INTERNATIONAL CO LTD1000/68-69, Soi Pradu 1Ratchadaphisek RoadBangkhlo BangkholaemBangkok 10120, Thailand.Tel: 66-2-2843131Fax: 66-2-2843619-20Email: info@plaschem.co.thContact: Sittichai Tanalarpipat, Decha Khunanukornkui, Vichai Viwatthanasittiphong

VietnamHAN HUY TRADING CO LTD(Singapore Office)Blk 10, Ubi Crescent#07-21 Ubi TechnoparkSingapore 408564Tel: (65) 6749-4494Fax: (65) 6742-4494Contact: Tay Eng Lok

(HCMC Office)478 Minh Phung St. Ward 9District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.Tel: 848-858-7866Fax: 848-963-3841Email: vnhanhuy@singnet.com.sgContact: Phung Viet Sieu, Managing Director

Our Offices

Middle EastAbu DhabiAbu Dhabi Polymers Company(Borouge) - Head OfficeBorouge TowerShaikh Kahlifa Energy ComplexCorniche RoadP.O. Box 6925Abu Dhabi, UAETel: +971 2 6070300Fax: +971 2 6070999

Borouge PteBorouge TowerShaikh Kahlifa Energy ComplexCorniche RoadP.O. Box 6951Abu Dhabi, UAETel: +971 2 6070888Fax: +971 2 6070889

LebanonKaslik Business Cente (KBC)Ghanimeh Building7th FloorKaslik, LabanonTel: +961 9641228 / 9636227Fax: +961 9641227

Asia South & PacificSingaporeBorouge Pte Ltd - Head Office1 George Street #18-01Singapore 049145Tel: +65 6275 4100Fax: +65 6377 1233

AustraliaSuite 1013, 10th FloorSt Kilda Road Towers, 1 Queens RoadMelbourne, VIC 3004Tel: +61-3 98639911Fax: +61-3 98639914

New ZealandLevel 2, AMI Building63 Albert Street, Auckland 1010PO Box 90203AMSC, Auckland 1142Tel: +64-9 3090565Fax: +64-9 3090563

India sub continentIndiaM/s. Borouge (India) Pvt. Ltd.,1501/02, ‘B’ Wing, Lotus Corporate ParkNear Jay Coach SignalWestern Express HighwayGoregaon (East)Mumbai – 400 063, IndiaTel No. : 6656 9800(Board)Fax No. : 6656 9899

Asia NorthShanghaiRepresentative OfficeRoom 4003-4013, Tower II, Plaza 661366 Nan Jing Xi Road, Shanghai 200040, ChinaTel: +86 21 6137 6888Fax: +86 21 6113 06106 / 0107

BeijingBorouge Sales and Marketing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.Beijing BranchRoom 3609-3616, China World Office 1China World Trade CenterNo.1 Jian Guo Men Wai AvenueBeijing, 100004, ChinaTel: +8610 65055395Fax: +8610 65055397

GuangzhouSales OfficeUnit 3902 / 3, R&F Centre10 Huaxia Road, Zhujiang NewtownTianhe District, GuangzhouTel: +86 20 3819 3200-299

Hong Kong14/F, The Toy House100 Canton RoadTsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong KongTel: +852 23772688Fax: +852 23142729