During the first five months of 2009, Russian pipemakers registered a decrease of 33.3 percent year on year in their deliveries to the domestic market which totaled 2.6 million mt for this period, Russian pipe producer TMK's vice president Sergey Bilan has stated.
According to Mr. Bilan, in January-May 2009 TMK supplied 849,000 mt of pipes to the domestic market - down 26.3 percent, ChTPZ Group delivered 457,000 mt - down 47 percent, OMK shipped 650,700 mt of pipes - down 6.8 percent, Severstal supplied 258,900 mt - down 23.5 percent, ESTAR group delivered 39,700 mt - down 94.5 percent, all compared to the same period last year.
During the period in question, OMK registered the lowest decrease in its deliveries, as it was supplying pipes for the Nord Stream and Central Asia-China pipelines. The biggest decrease in deliveries was registered by the pipemakers whose products are designed for the infrastructural projects of gas and oil companies, like Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (down 56.5 percent) and TMK's Volzhsky pipe plant (down 43.6 percent), and by the pipemakers oriented towards machine building, like PNTZ (down 35.6 percent). However, the most affected were the small pipemakers, as their products are designed mostly for the construction industry which posted a strong decline in consumption levels.
According to Mr. Bilan, Russia's pipe imports declined to 209,300 mt in January-May 2009, from 467,000 mt in the same period last year.