Sinarsky Pipe Plant (SinTZ), a subsidiary of the Russian pipe producer TMK Group (TMK), plans in 2010 to invest Ruble 600 million (about $19.4 million) in the implementation of its investment projects, SinTZ's executive director Vyacheslav Gagarinov said at the annual congress of the Russian Union of Metal and Steel Suppliers in Yekaterinburg city.
In 2009, SinTZ launched a waste water facility designed for the treatment of industrial waste water using biochemical technology. The upgrading of SinTZ's operations in 2009 also included heat treatment equipment of cold-deformed coiled tubing in nitrogen shielding gas environment and the installation and ramping up of polishing equipment for stainless steel and alloy pipes.
In recent years, TMK invested more than $1 billion in the development of its steel production and manufacture of round billets, and in the expansion of its rolling and product finishing facilities. Various projects aimed at improving product characteristics and quality and expanding the mix were implemented at the company's Russian plants last year. As a result, in 2009, TMK developed and started producing 42 new types of products.
With the onset of the global economic crisis in the fourth quarter of 2008, ТМК reviewed its strategic investment program for the period 2004-2011. As a result, capital expenditures declined by $567.9 million or 57.9 percent to $412.3 million in 2009 as compared to $980.2 million in 2008. The implementation of three major projects was delayed for at least a year. These projects include the modernization of Volzhsky Pipe Plant's seamless rolling operations, deferred from 2009 to 2010, the installation of an FQM mill at Seversky Tube Works, moved from 2012 to 2014, and the construction of an EAF at Tagmet, delayed from 2011 to 2012.