Abstract: An apparatus for continuous manufacture of butt-welded pipes is constituted by a heating furnace for heating a skelp continuously passed therethrough up to a predetermined temperature less than the butt-welding temperature for the material of the skelp, heaters adjacent the outlet end of the heating furnace and having spaced opposed induction heating coils on opposite sides of the path along which the skelp is passed through the heaters and adjacent the edge portions of the skelp for heating only the edge portions of the skelp discharged from the heating furnace up to the butt-welding temperature. The induction heating coils are such that the electromagnetic coupling between the induction heating coils and the corresponding edge portions of the skelp can be varied to adjust the temperature to which the edge portions are heated.