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Demand is growing for heavy chromoly pressure vessels as new rules for ship fuel drive a global process review by refiners, leading to an increase in demand for metals and possibly creating a new market for steelmakers to sell existing and new products.
Oil refiners around the world are scrambling to meet a tight deadline of 2020 to reduce substantially the amount of sulfur in bunker oil, used primarily as fuel for ships. To do that many refiners will need to install large new process trains built around huge, heavy, thick-wall pressure vessels made primarily from chromium-molybdenum steels. Fabricators, engineering companies, and analysts tell AMM that they anticipate some increase in demand for such steels, along with bookings for vessels, pipes, valves, pumps and other ancillary equipment. No one anticipates a crisis, but normal lead times, already measured in years, could grow significantly longer.
While boilermakers and tank erectors are ubiquitous, in all the world there are fewer than a dozen fabricators of the immense, thick-wall vessels that are used as high-pressure, high-temperature reactors in refiners and chemical plants. The vessels alone cost many hundreds of millions of dollars, and full installations with construction, plumbing, and technology cost $1 to $2 billion.
Two of the largest fabricators are Japan Steel Works Ltd. and Kobe Steel Ltd. In competition and collaboration they made important advances in metallurgy and fabrication going back to the 1960s and remain major players today. Most of the rest are based in Italy, several of which have operations in other regions. It bears mentioning that there are no fabricators of the largest vessels left in the United States.
One of the leading Italian firms is ATB Riva Calzoni SpA, with manufacturing facilities in Italy and in Malaysia and more than 60 years experience in design, fabrication and inspection of heavy-wall pressure vessels for the energy and chemicals industries. The company can make units up to a maximum wall thickness of 358 millimeters (14 inches), maximum length of 100 meters (330 feet), and maximum weight of 1,620 tonnes (1,786 short tons).
"ATB is one the few fabricators worldwide experienced in manufacturing reactors and separators for hydroprocessing operating at high temperature and high pressure," according to Salvatore Poddighe, commercial director for oil and gas....