Luxembourg’s steel tube maker Tenaris announced that it had invested US$520,000 to install an electric induction coil for the upsetting line at its seamless pipe factory TuboCaribe in Cartagena, Colombia. This one will be substituted for a natural gas fired furnace.

This upsetting line will increase the diameter and thickness of pipe ends and process an average of 24,500 tons of pipes every year. The new facilities will reduce the heating time of pipes from five minutes to 20 seconds, which will also help to cut annual carbon emissions by 2,000 to 3,000 tons. Before the installment, this line also consumed around 1.3 million cubic meters of natural gas every year.

The president of Tenaris for the Andean region said that this investment will cut the usage of natural gas in an upsetting process for energy efficiency and help to achieve the company’s goal of decarbonization.