Hyojong Industrial Co Ltd is a unique manufacturer of steel pipes for the oil, gas and water industries.

One of the largest private sector companies in Qatar, Hyojong’s strive for excellence through new technology and quality has brought about many rewards.
It has the reputation as the manufacturer of the largest steel pipe in the world – a spiral carbon steel pipe that is 3.4 metres in diameter and 18 metres long.
The pipe and piping was produced for the RasGas LNG trains 6 and 7 projects. The pipe is used as an integral part of the LNG cooling system.
The State of Qatar is the first country in the world to use this size of pipe for cooling systems.
It is believed that this size of pipe will aid in future development of the cooling capacity of Ras Lafan Industrial City (RLC), helping the factories there to produce higher capacities with less cost by building bigger single plants rather than several smaller ones.
These large pipes are part of the new vision for industry. Being enclosed, they are environmentally cleaner with no contaminants from surrounding industries and with a finer degree of pressure maintenance, speed of flow is better controlled, says Hyojong board member Yousef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari.
“Hyojong’s reputation extends to being the only factory in the Middle East that produces a full range of pipe sizes, fabricates and produces spool pipes and is able to satisfy demand for large quantities of spiral and spool pipe within short time periods,” he says.
Hyojong is able to produce four-metre diameter carbon steel spiral pipes up to 50 metres in length.
It also has a full turnkey operation, offering consultation on design and layout of plants, hydro testing for piping up to four metres in diameter and 30 metres in length - a system that was designed specifically for Hyojong, ultrasound, mechanical automatic cutting and welding facilities which give 100 per cent accuracy.
“Apart from giving a fully supported service, Hyojong is reputed to be the first company in the world that can epoxy coat these four-metre diameter pipes,” says Al Kuwari.
“We also offers transportation, machinery and manpower to handle pipes of this size, as well as installation supervision.
“Hyojong is proud of the fact that it operates the only Mobile Spiral Mill in the world, and can produce pipe anywhere in the world – onsite – with a capacity of 100,000 tonne within four months of move to setup,” adds Al Kuwari.
Established in 1981 in Korea, Hyojong came to Qatar in 2002 and set up its now 250,000 sq m factory at Ras Lafan Industrial City. It was certified by API (American Petroleum Institute) and received ISO 9001 for manufacturing submerged arc welded spiral pipes made of carbon steel.
In December 2004, Hyojong merged with the Qatar Promotion Board and became one of the largest private sector companies in Qatar.
Hyojong is a Qatari (75 per cent)–Korean (25 per cent) joint venture which enjoys a capital of over 300 million Qatari riyals, employing some 300 staff through five factories with RLC.
On RLC, Al Kuwari said, “Ras Laffan understands the needs of the international companies solutions to high capacity production.
“It works well by offering specialist services with an understanding for the need for onsite services which Hyojong offers, services which avoid problems with transportation and infrastructure such as poor road access.
“The benefits offered by RLC are onsite, immediate availability to specialist services,” adds Al Kuwari.
The current projects undertaken by the company are:
• Ras Lafan Refinery Project – a joint venture with Daewoo, producing spool pipe and fabrication of joints and bends;
• Supplying cooling pipes for Al Khaleej Project, also LNG;
• Piling pipes for a large bridge project in Abu Dhabi;
• Exporting of general steel pipes to the UAE;
• A number of smaller projects in Doha, supplying piling pipes;
• Supplying of steel saddles for Ras Lafan Phase 2, supplying arround 700 saddles a month to a diameter of 3–4 metres, valued at arround $25 millon; and
• Qatar-Bahrain causeway – piling pipes.
“The company is fully ISO 9001 certified along with with API accreditation – it is a best practices company,” says Al Kuwari.
“All staff whether qualified or unskilled are given training up to 2–3 weeks on all aspects of manufacturing, production and maintenance techniques, as well as training to exacting API and ISO standards.
“Due to the specialist nature of these pipes, the training goes beyond the international standards. Many of the international companies give financial support and technical aid in the training of the personnel,” says Al Kuwari.
On future plans, Al Kuwari said Hyojong plans to tie in with ABI International Training Institutes to expand, develop, improve and certify courses.
“The company will continue to support all development projects for oil and gas in Qatar as well as develop solutions for the delivery of potable water. All these services will continue to be offered under one roof,” adds Kuwari.
On the vision and mission of the company, Al Kuwari said, “The vision is to be the “Champion of Qatar” and one of the biggest worldwide Qatari private sector companies that exports both knowledge and manufacturing expertise internationally.
“The mission is to continue to be the largest Qatari private sector company worldwide, that offers the stability of sound financial backing, excellence in technology and expertise in technically qualified people,” says Al Kuwari.