Pipes are the arteries of the industrialized countries. They provide companies and private households with water and ensure disposal of their wastewater. If sewage pipes are missing or defective, it has a disruptive effect on the economic cycle. To prevent their systems from grinding to a halt, governments and companies need to invest extremely large sums of money in repairing, renovating and replacing such pipes.

There’s a lot to do for pipe manufacturers – everywhere around the world. One example is in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the supply situation is critical both for drinking water and wastewater disposal. According to the foreign trade and marketing company Germany Trade and Invest (GTI), tap water in St. Petersburg is substandard because 40% of the city’s 6,755-km (4,200-mile) pipe network has been “worn to a frazzle.”