The large diameter steel pipes are ready to be exported.(Provided by Dai Ying)

“In 2015, our efforts to increase our shares in the international market paid off. We received a big order covering over 16000 tons of LSAW pipes from Saudi Arabia.” Hu Bin, Manager of International Sales department of Steel Pipe Works, Sinopec Oilfield Equipment Corporation,(hereafter referred to Steel Pipe Works), a subsidiary of Sinopec Oilfield  Service Corporation, said happily and showcased his thrilled emotions.

Being certificated into the market of Middle East

A passport was needed to get into the international market, and a certificate of quality from Aramco, whose standard is regarded as the top benchmark of the industry around the world, is the best passport. As long as a steel pipe manufacturer gets the certificate of quality from Aramco, the producer’s products are free of check by some oil companies in the Middle East. It means that the certificate will greatly facilitate the manufacturer entering into the pipe market of the Middle East.

Therefore, Steel Pipe Works set up a panel to apply for the certificate from Aramco. Their work included keeping all the operation and manufacturing systems and every control unit up to Aramco standard. Finally, they passed the test and got the certificate. Steel Pipe Works’ two types of products, LSAW pipe and SSAW pipe, were listed into Aramco’s procurement memorandum in Chinese market.

A technician is checking the diameter of the steel pipe. (Provided by Dai Ying)  

Braving the market competitions

At the beginning of 2015, a piece of news hopped into Hu Bin’s attention after he had spent days surfing on the international bidding and tendering web, reading: an EPC gas pressure boost project valued 1.3 billion USD is inviting tenders.

After reading through the news, Hu Bin decided to call the owner party for further information and to demonstrate his initiatives for the project. Upon receiving the call, the owner party was very surprised. As they had never expected that a Chinese manufacturer would be willing to bid for this job. They had no knowledge of the applicator from such a distant country. Additionally, Hu Bin also faced fierce competition from hundreds of rivals, some were even the long term partners of the owner party.  

Firstly, Hu Bin tried to convince the owner party that Steel Pipe Works was a Aramco certificated bidder with a proven record that it had exported 500 tons of steel pipes to Saudi Arabia in 2014. Therefore, Steel Pipe Works was up to the basic standard for the bidders. Finally, Steel Pipe Works was allowed to offer a price.

Then, in order to be kept updated to the bidding and tendering process, Hu Bin and his mates paid great efforts to analyze the market, polish the bidding documents, visit the client to negotiate the contract details, thereby wining the trust of the owner party with their top quality of the products and the favorable price.

The better thing was that after signing a contract of 14000 tons of steel pipes, the owner party offered another contract covering over 2000 tons of steel pipes to Steel Pipe Works.

“ What a big surprise.” Hu Bin was very thrilled hearing the news.