TUBOS REUNIDOS: A COMPANY WITH OVER 100 YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN THE PIPE INDUSTRY

1892: During the last decade of the 19th century, the Bilbao estuary was the site of the first Spanish iron and steel factories where important metallurgical, shipbuilding, and railway equipment industries mushroomed along its bank. It was during these years that Tubos Forjados,S.A., the precursor to today's Tubos Reunidos S.A., was founded.

To be exact, Tubos Forjados, S.A. was constituted on December 2 and the goal of the company was to manufacture welded and rolled pipes out of iron and soft steel. Its first offices were located at the "Nuevo Teatro" until its early installations could be built in the Deusto area on land known as "Vuelta de Elorrieta" and initially had three smelting furnaces. This new business was founded with the proviso that its existence would be extended up to 50 years whereafter it would have to be dissolved.

1894: On April 18, the first pipe, a 1¼ inch three-quarter type pipe, was manufactured. The first installations had a production capacity of 3,000 tons annually and were engaged at manufacturing boiler pipes, steam pipes, water pipes, gas pipes,...

1918: On March 1, 1918, the Sociedad Española Babcock & Wilcox company was constituted in which the British company Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. as well as Altos Hornos de Vizcaya and Sociedad Hidroeléctrica Española were shareholders.

1935: The prevision in the company's first by-laws that stated that the company would have to dissolve on January 1, 1943 was modified so that after that date the company would be able to continue its economic activity in perpetuity.

1939: In culmination of two decades of constant activity aimed at adapting, modernizing, and amplifying the facilities and productive processes, a request for government authorization was presented to substitute the facilities for welding pipes for others in which seamless pipes could be manufactured.

1940: Official authorization was granted to Tubos Forjados, S.A. to manufacture seamless pipes which opened the doors to the desired objective that had been formulated as far back as the 1920's. We should remember that the first studies and approach to this type of process date back to 1898-99.

1946: The new manufacturing facilities went into operation to make seamless pipes and looked into both hot-finished manufacturing them with a Dvorak patented push bench as well as a White cold drawing machine.

1953: Work began on amplifying Tubos Forjados in which a high-frequency seamless pipe manufacturing section was put into operation which meant an important technological advance over the previous saturation welding production system when a pipe guaranteed to be better and more resistant could be manufactured and which would allow for the use of a cold drawn and hot finished strip.

1962: New cold drawing facilities showed a clear vision for the future regarding the company's potential since this new investment effort was undergone exactly at the moment in which the market showed signs of contracting.

1966: Tubos del Nervión, S.A., headquartered in Amurrio (Alava) whose company capital was entirely underwritten Tubos Forjados, S.A., was constituted on January 4th. Its facilities were to be exclusively dedicated to manufacturing seamless pipes.

1968: On December 30, Tubos Reunidos, S.A. was constituted and was a grouping of all of the facilities of Tubos Forjados, S.A. (in Elorrieta and Amurrio) and part of what Babcock & Wilcox Española, S.A. had for the manufacture of seamless pipes and welded pipes (in Galindo). In compliance with the favorable accord of both Boards of Administration adopted in the month of January of that year, the constitution of said company meant bringing the industrial activity of Tubos Forjados, S.A. to an end as its activities and facilities were transferred over to the new emerging company. Tubos Forjados, S.A., after 75 years of dedication to pipe manufacturing become a holding company in which Tubos Reunidos, S.A has 50% of the shares while the other 50% are owned by Tubos del Nervión, S.A. Babcock & Wilcox, for their part, went to hold another 50% of the shares in each of the companies indicated. In this way, the Tubos Reunidos, S.A. industrial network is made up by the Amurrio plant, the Galindo plant which came from Babcock & Wilcox Española and is dedicated to the manufacture of hot-finish pipes, cold drawn pipes, and welded pipes, and the Elorrieta plant where hot-finished and cold-drawn pipes are produced.

1969: The last hot-finished pipe was manufactured at the Elorrieta push bench.

1970: With the objective of extending the offer of our Group to new industrial sectors, we acquired 100% of the capital of Aceros Calibrados, S.A. (ACECSA). In this new situation, our Group takes another step forward to continue to be in the vanguard of its sector by incorporating to its production scheme new facilities for the manufacturing of cold drawn tubes for small sizes; this product being demanded by the automobile industry.

1976: On February 12, the company Acería de Amurrio, S.A. was founded and, with the addition of steel production, the factory installations in Amurrio were complete as an integrated manufacturing unit. This integrated factory unit was founded with production capacity nearing 200,000 tons. At present, this production capacity exceeds 350,000 tons. Likewise, there was an important investment in the Amurrio plant as evidenced by the introduction of a stretch-reducing mill with a production capacity considerably superior to what the Galindo facilities could do. The stretch-reducing facilities in Galindo where closed down but the Pilger hot finishing lines were maintained as well as the cold drawing and welded pipe manufacturing facilities.

1977: On July 7, the first casting was produced at the Amurrio steel mill.

1982: In February of this year, the merger of Tubos Reunidos, S.A. and Tubos del Nervión, S.A. went ahead as announced in the previous fiscal year and become a single legal entity under the name of Tubos Reunidos, S.A. which would group together a series of facilities dedicated to manufacturing seamless pipes. The Elorrieta facilities were closed down and cold drawn production, specially dedicated to small diameter and thicknesses, was moved to the Galindo plant. Manufacture of special-purpose welded pipes was likewise put to an end in 1982 as a result of a gradually modifying process of production.

1983: On December 31, Acería de Amurrio, S.A. was merged with Tubos Reunidos, S.A. which completed the legal and patrimony simplification process of the Group which had begun two years before with the merger between Tubos Reunidos and Tubos del Nervión, S.A.

1984: The investment initiated and carried out over the last two years comes to fruition when a new heating and perforation (C.P.E.) system, first of its kind in the world, is put into operation in Amurrio in the front part of the push bench which meant a transcendental technological leap that put the company at the vanguard of seamless pipe manufacturing. Likewise, considerable amounts of money are invested to put some new facilities into operation in Galindo to finish oil industry pipes.

1985: An ambitious Three-year Investment Plan was begun (1985-1987) which contemplated important improvements at the Amurrio steel mill, the Amurrio pipe manufacturing factor, and the Galindo plant oriented towards providing all of the facilities with the latest innovation both in steel making and in hot-finished and cold drawn pipe manufacturing.

1987: Hot rolling facilities were closed down at the Galindo plant where facilities for cold wiredrawing and oil pipe finishing remained.

1989: API 5CT (casing and tubing) and 5L (line pipe) certifications was granted for the first time in which approval for our products for the oil industry was given.

1991: Installations at the Amurrio plant, dedicated to finishing oil pipes, were improved and concentrated.

1992: The Amurrio and Galindo factories were designated by AENOR as registered companies which meant that their Quality Assurance Systems meet the requirements of the ISO-9002 standard. Likewise, both factories were approved by TÜV for boiler pipe manufacturing.

1993: The finishing process for oil industry products (OCTG pipes) was definitively moved to Amurrio when the aforementioned installation, brought over from its old location in Galindo, was put into operation in 1993.

1996: A Strategic Company Plan was drawn up which, in continuing with the enormous investment efforts taken over the last decade, contemplated increasing investment further with the goal of improving productivity and achieving important cost reductions.

1998: This year was memorable by the inclusion of Productos Tubulares, S.A. into the Group which brought with it an ample range of pipes of great dimensions and thicknesses plus special alloy and stainless steel pipes. The acquisition of Productos Tubulares, S.A. meant that all of the capital came to be the property of the Tubos Forjados, S.A. holding company.

1999: In this fiscal year, the corporate structure of the Tubos Reunidos Group proceeded to be streamlined by the merger of Tubos Forjados, S.A. , representative company of its shareholders, with the operating company, Tubos Reunidos, S.A. As of this moment, the shareholders are the direct owners of Tubos Reunidos. Likewise, important investment took place this year that meant an important increase regarding the figures from previous fiscal years and which was mainly destined for a new stretch reducing mill at the Amurrio plant which allowed for it to increase its product range in thicknesses, the performance of the material, and the quality of its hot-finished milled pipes.

2002: Transfer of our Cold drawn plant in Galindo to Amurrio. This operation, which has been executed together with the incorporation of important technological and environmental improvements, implies the concentration of the productive process in one unique Centre with the consequent advantages in productivity and efficiency.

2002 and beyond: The historical record of overcoming the odds and enjoying business successes goes on. In this way, the Strategic Plan of the Tubos Reunidos Group envisages reaching the consolidated volume of a 70 billion peseta turnover with a 5 billion peseta profit in 2004.