ASTM A106 Pipe

What is ASTM A106 pipe?

ASTM A106 covers seamless carbon-steel pipe for high-temperature service in NPS ⅛ to 48, in three grades — A (205 MPa yield), B (240 MPa) and C (275 MPa) — of which Grade B is the one specified almost everywhere. Three things separate it from A53: it is seamless only (no welded Type E), the steel is killed and made to a fine-grain practice with silicon ≥ 0.10 %, and its chemistry limits manganese, copper, nickel, chromium, molybdenum and vanadium so that the pipe behaves predictably when welded and when held at 400–500 °C in a steam or hot-oil line. ASME adopts it as SA-106, which is why it is the carbon-steel pipe of boilers, power-plant piping, refinery process units, petrochemical plants, heat-transfer-fluid loops and any B31.1 / B31.3 piping whose design temperature or pressure exceeds what the code allows for A53 — in practice, most refinery and plant piping above 200 °C or 20 bar. Mills produce it hot-finished (the standard) or cold-drawn (tighter tolerance, small sizes), hydrostatically test every length, and usually certify it against A106 Gr B, A53 Type S Gr B and API 5L Gr B at once, since the chemistries overlap; the triple certificate lets one stock serve plant, utility and pipeline orders. Dimensions follow ASME B36.10M: schedule 40 (standard), 80 (extra strong), 160 and XXS, so an A106 6" sch 80 pipe is 168.3 × 10.97 mm — the same as the EN seamless size 168.3 × 11, and often the same heat. We supply from Turkish and EU seamless mills in 6 and 12 m, plain or bevelled per ASME B16.25, and add hydrotest witnessing, NDE (UT / eddy current), PMI and 3.2 inspection per project.

Seamless pipe — NPS, OD, wall and weight

ASME B36.10M sizes: sch 40 = STD and sch 80 = XS up to 10\"; sch 160 and XXS listed where stocked. Weights per B36.10M (kg/m = 0.02466 × (OD − t) × t).

Grades, standards and tolerances

A106 vs A53 vs API 5L

Temperature and pressure limits

Lengths and stock

A106 Grade B sch 40 and sch 80 in ½"–8" (6 m, plain or bevelled, black) is held by Turkish seamless mills and our stock for 1–2-week delivery, triple-certified; sch 160, XXS, 10"–24", cold-drawn small-bore and Grade C are mill runs of 4–8 weeks. Lengths 6 m standard, 12 m (single random 5–7 m, double random 11–12 m) on request; cut lengths and nipples supplied.

Bevelling, welding, bending and testing

Ends bevelled 37.5° ± 2.5° with 1.6 mm land per ASME B16.25, or plain, or threaded NPT on small bore (nipples per A733); welded with E7018 / ER70S-6 under B31 procedures — no preheat below 25 mm wall, PWHT per code above; cold-bent to 5 D on our benders up to 6", hot induction bends through partners; hydrotest per A106 (to 2 500 psi max) on every length at the mill, supplementary UT or eddy-current NDE, PMI and hardness on request. Not galvanized as standard — A106 is a process pipe; galvanized A53 covers plumbing.

Where it is used

• Boiler, superheater-connecting and steam piping (ASME I, B31.1)
• Refinery and petrochemical process piping (B31.3)
• Hot-oil and heat-transfer-fluid loops
• Power-plant feedwater, condensate and auxiliary lines
• High-pressure air, nitrogen and hydraulic lines
• Oil-field gathering and well-site piping (triple-certified with API 5L)

A106 vs A53 vs EN seamless

Where the drawing says A53 and the service is water, air or structure, A53 pipe Type E is the cheaper answer; where it says A106, only seamless pipe with the A106 certificate is accepted. Our European seamless pipe to EN 10216 (P235GH / P265GH) is metallurgically the same tube and is dual-certified by several mills — the choice is the code the plant is built to. For boiler tubes proper see boiler tube; for pipelines, API 5L on the ERW and seamless pages.

Price

A106 Grade B is priced per ton on the seamless list with a certification premium of about 60 USD/t for the A106 / triple certificate and hydrotest documentation; sch 80 and 160 sit higher per ton (heavier wall, smaller lots). The bands below are the month's indicative FOB Istanbul ranges; per-piece prices follow from kg/m in the table.

Bands from our weekly export list (September 2026), FOB Istanbul, full-container quantities, excluding freight and certificates. Firm price per project on RFQ within one working day.

Export and packing

A106 pipe ships in hexagonal bundles of 1–2 t strapped with edge protection, bevelled ends capped, every bundle tagged with heat, size, schedule and the three standards it is certified to; 6 m in 20' (≈ 20 t) and 40' HC (≈ 24 t), 12 m on flat-rack or breakbulk from Derince. HS code 7304.19 / 7304.39 (seamless, other than line pipe / line pipe).

Certificates

Each heat ships with the A106 mill test report as EN 10204 3.1 — chemistry, tensile, flattening and bend, hydrostatic test pressure, grain-size and heat-treatment statement — and, where ordered, 3.2 certification by SGS, BV or TÜV, NDE reports, PMI and impact results; certificate of origin and, for Gulf and African destinations, SASO / SONCAP or COC.

How to order

Specify A106 Grade B (or C), NPS × schedule, hot-finished or cold-drawn, ends (plain / bevelled / NPT), length (6 m / 12 m / cut), quantity in tons or pieces, and supplementary requirements — 3.2 inspection, NDE, PMI, impact test — so the certificate scope is agreed before the mill run.

Standards

• ASTM A106 / A106M — seamless carbon steel pipe for high-temperature service
• ASME SA-106 (boiler and pressure-vessel code)
• ASME B36.10M dimensions; ASME B16.25 bevels
• ASME B31.1 / B31.3 / B31.9 design codes
• EN 10204 3.1 / 3.2

Grades

Grade data sheets (chemistry, mechanicals, equivalents) are on our reference site: A106 Grade B · A53 Grade B · P235GH