In 2020, Ukrainian steel pipe and railway wheel producer Interpipe’s sales of pipes and railway products decreased by 17 percent year on year to 662,400 mt, according to the company’s official statement.
In particular, in 2020 the company’s sales of pipe products dropped by 21 percent year on year to 469,900 mt as a result of a fall in demand for OCTG pipes, caused mainly by lower oil prices in the first half of 2020. Meanwhile, the company’s sales of pipes to the Ukrainian market dropped by 31 percent year on year to 102,000 mt. This was mainly a result of the curtailment of the gas production program by UkrGasVydobuvannya. In the meantime, shipments to private sector gas production companies remained approximately at the levels of 2019.
As regards exports, Interpipe supplied 137,000 mt of pipes to Europe, down six percent year on year, mostly due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to lower consumption of tubular goods. In the period in question, Interpipe shipped 52,000 mt of tubular goods to North and South America, down 63 percent year on year. In 2020, Interpipe’s sales to the Middle East grew by nine percent year on year to 111,000 mt, due to the start of sales of UPJ-F premium connections to Turkey and line pipes to such leading oil-producing giants as the National Oil Company of Abu Dhabi (ADNOC) and Qatar Petroleum.
In 2020, Interpipe’s sales of railway products, namely wheels, tires, axles and wheel sets, dropped by 5.4 percent year on year to 192,400 mt. In particular, the company’s sales to the CIS in 2020 decreased by 10 percent year on year to 84,000 mt, following the return of the duty on deliveries of Ukrainian wheels to the Eurasian Customs Union and due to reduced volumes of cargoes during the coronavirus pandemic period. Meanwhile, the company’s shipments to the domestic market in 2020 decreased by 42 percent year on year to 26,000 mt, while its sales to the European market on the contrary increased by 29 percent year on year to 67,000 mt, SteelOrbis has learned.
Despite the challenging market conditions in 2020, including quota tightening and introduction of antidumping duties in key destinations and, concurrently, high electricity prices, Interpipe is said to have shown strong results for the past year. “The share of Interpipe’s sales to export markets exceeded 80 percent according to the results of the year. We entered new segments and accomplished a number of deliveries to market leaders. The Pipe Division successfully shipped products with premium threaded connections to Turkish Petroleum and line pipes to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and Qatar Petroleum. The Railway Product Division completed certification and carried out the first deliveries of passenger railway wheels for Deutsche Bahn high-speed trains,” Denis Morozov, Interpipe’s chief financial officer, said. In 2021, the company is expected to complete the construction of an additional workshop for the manufacture of wheelsets and to start the construction of new facilities to produce pipes with premium threaded connections for oil and gas extraction.