LIBERTY Steel Group today announces that it will be investing RON 31 million (EUR 6.3 million) in a state of the art coating line for use on pipes produced by its specialist unit, LIBERTY Tubular Products Galati.

The firsts of the 80 trucks loaded with components for the pipe coating line has already arrived from the Netherlands, with the final parts of the equipment expected to arrive by the end of September. The installation of the new line is expected to start in 2022, with the project also leading to the creation of a testing laboratory at the same time.

The pipe coating line will employ a high degree of automation, being operated by a team of twenty five employees, and is environmentally friendly. The annual capacity of the line will be about 110,000 tons, or almost 500,000 meters of pipe, involving the washing, drying, sandblasting, inspection and coating of successive layers of epoxy resin, polyethylene and polypropylene as well as – on request – polypropylene foam. In addition to these coatings on external surface of the pipe, the Pipe Coating Line can also perform coating on the internal surface pipes using epoxy resin. Treated this way, the pipes can be used in transmission lines for oil, natural gas, water or other fluids.

Aida Nechifor, the General Director of LIBERTY Galaţi said: “Market demand for coated tubular products, which can be used for the safe transportation of all typed of fluids, is increasing strongly. With this new Coating Line LIBERTY Tubular Products Galati will be the only producer in the area with the capability to produce this type of high quality tubular products. Our great commercial advantage is that Galați will be able to produce not only the steel plate required to manufacture the pipes but also be able to process them into a final state for customers all over Romania, the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe.”