Abstract: The paper involves analysis of the development trend of straight welded pipe mills both at home and abroad. Also discussed are the characteristics of two formation processes, i. e. roll-forming and row-roll forming and the operation and process/equipment problems of the existing dozen of ERW straight welded pipe mills imported from abroad. It is emphasized that units of the mill for high （medium ） frequency treatment, ultrasonic detection, shearing/butt-welding and.o.f.oll forming have to be imported,while such units as flying shearer,horizontal spiral looper, hydrostatic tester and end-facing/chamfering machine can be made at home