Steel strip wound reinforced composite pipe (SSRCP) is used for shallow sea oil and gas transportation. Its hysteresis characteristics under low-cycle cyclic loads can absorb external energy by deformation. That is beneficial to ensure the stability of ships, drilling platforms and other marine structures. Considering the nonlinear contact between layers, the nonlinear hysteresis characteristics of SSRCP under bending load were investigated. The results show that SSRCP has different strength change trends under different loading modes during the bending cycle loading process, but stiffness degradation characteristics occurs in all conditions. The frictional energy dissipation increases with an accelerated rate. The increasing of limit displacement is the main factor for the rapid accumulation of frictional energy. When the small displacement amplitude is not applied at the initial stage, the effect of stiffness degradation weakens with the internal pressure increases. The stiffness degradation rate decreases with the increasing of the internal pressure and friction coefficient between layers. When the internal and external pressures are both 3 MPa, a minimum point appears on the skeleton curve, which means that the SSRCP stiffness increases. Frictional energy dissipation increases nonlinearly with the increasing of diameter-to-thickness ratio, shelf friction coefficient and internal pressure. There is a critical spiral angle, which makes the ability of SSRCP increases suddenly for absorbing external energy.