Russia-based TMK, one of the world's leading oil and gas steel pipe producers, has announced its production results for the first quarter of the current year.
For the first three months of 2012, TMK shipped 1.053 million mt of pipes to customers, representing a 2.2 percent decrease compared to the first three months of 2011due to lower sales volumes in the welded pipe business: however, it recorded a 1.5 percent increase compared to Q4 2011.
In Q1, TMK's seamless pipe shipments increased by 6.6 percent year on year and by 9.3 percent quarter on quarter to 632,000 mt. In the given period, welded pipe shipments fell by 13 percent year on year to 421,000 mt driven by a fall in demand for Russian large diameter pipe (LDP). As compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, welded pipe shipments decreased by 8.3 percent.
TMK's Russian division saw 15.5 percent year-on-year and 21.9 percent quarter-on-quarter increases in its seamless OCTG shipments on the back of increased oil and gas production in Russia during the first quarter of 2012, thus strengthening its market share.
Volumes of large diameter pipe shipments decreased in the first quarter by 48.6 percent year on year, and fell by 13.2 percent compared to the previous quarter, due to the completion of numerous major pipeline projects and the postponement of new projects by consumers.
In the first three months of 2012, TMK shipped about 138,000 premium connections, up 27.8 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Looking further ahead in 2012, TMK expects growing demand for OCTG and line pipe in Russia and sideways global demand for these products on the whole.