MMK increases shipments to Russian pipemakers by 48 percent in 2010

The Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has announced that in 2010 it increased its shipments of rolled steel products to Russian domestic pipe producers by 48 percent year on year to 2.376 million mt. The share of tubular products in MMK's overall shipments to the domestic market climbed to 34 percent from 33 percent in 2009.
 
MMK's major customers in the pipemaking industry are the Seversky and Volzhsky pipe plants (both subsidiaries of TMK), Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChTPZ), and Vyksa Steel Works and Almetyevsk Pipe Plant (both subsidiaries of OMK).
 
Such a significant increase in shipments to the pipemaking sector was primarily ensured by the MMK's new plate rolling mill 5000 (estimated output 1.5 million mt per year) commissioned in July 2009 to produce high-quality billets for large diameter pipes. The mill reached its full capacity in 2010 and had produced its first millionth mt of hot rolled plates by September 2010. Last year the mill produced 943,000 mt of commercial steel products.
 
"The mill 5000 has strengthened MMK's foothold in the Russian market of rolled metal for pipemakers and has secured MMK's participation in major oil and gas projects including the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok and Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipelines and the BTS-2 and ESPO oil pipelines," said MMK in its statement.
 
In 2008-2009, MMK annually shipped over 1.6 million mt of rolled products to Russian pipe manufacturers.