New pipe plant to be built in Russia

The Kurgan Region Administration in Russia has announced that a massive project for the construction of a large diameter pipe plant will be implemented in the region. The $300 million-worth plant with annual capacity of 615,000 metric tons per year will specialize in production of 500 mm - 1,420 mm diameter pipes. The Kurgan region officials have named Eurasian Pipeline Consortium as the main investor in the project. However, SteelOrbis was unable to find any information regarding this company. In addition, the Russian Fund of Pipe Industry Development has stated that the above-mentioned company is registered neither as a pipe producer nor as a pipe trader. Directly after the project announcement, many sources named Leman-Pipe, which is owned by Mr Rinat Ahmetov's Ukrainian System Capital Management, as the main investor in the project. However, Leman has confirmed to SteelOrbis that it is not involved in the large diameter pipe plant construction in the Kurgan region. Currently, the pipe industry in Russia is the one of the fastest growing sectors mainly due to the demand from the oil and gas industry. However, during last year other Russian industries showed considerable increase in pipe consumption as well. Thus, in the January-November 2006 period, other industries, apart from oil and gas, increased their combined pipe consumptions by 25-28 percent year on year.