The US-based subsidiary of Russian pipe manufacturer OAO TMK, TMK IPSCO, saw pipe product shipments volumes total 479,000 metric tons in the first half of 2011, up 16.3 percent over the same period last year. Shipments were also up 6.3 percent from Q1 to Q2 2011. In a press release Tuesday, TMK said that the line pipe segment grew with the highest rate, and an "increasingly active development of shale deposits in the US, where the share of TMK IPSCO's shipments of premium connections used for shale gas production exceeds 30 percent, allows the Company to have enough positive view on further utilization of its US division."
TMK also noted that US drilling activity remained high throughout Q2 2011 with active drilling rigs up 25.2 percent year-over-year. The increase was mainly driven by the oil drilling activity with an oil rig share growing to more than 53 percent supported by high crude oil prices.
For both its US and Russian operations, throughout Q2 2011, almost all TMK's major markets maintained a positive trend, and in the first six months of 2010 TMK shipped a total of 2.16 million mt (up 16.2 percent year-on-year). OCTG pipes shipment volumes increased by 6.1 percent quarter-over-quarter, and over the first half of 2011, shipment volumes of OCTG pipes increased by 7.4 percent compared to the same period of 2010. Shipment volumes for large-diameter pipe totaled 377,000 mt in the first half of 2011--a substantial 33.7 percent year-on-year upsurge. In the first half of 2011, shipment volumes of industrial seamless pipes increased by 22.9 percent and 10.6 percent over the first six months of 2010 and Q1 2011, respectively.