Russia-based steel pipe producer ChelPipe Group (ChTPZ) has posted a significant decline in its operating results for the first nine months of the current year, as its shipments have continued to be severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. ChelPipe Group expects the spread of Covid-19 will continue to adversely affect the macroeconomic situation in 2020. However, the company believes that its anti-crisis measures and its operational efficiency program as well as the forecast for rebounding demand in the second half this year in a number of segments will allow ChelPipe to maintain its stable financial condition. The company said it intends to continue the implementation of its investment program by adopting a flexible approach to capital expenditure depending on the market environment.
During the January-September period of the current year, ChelPipe’s total pipe shipments amounted to 1.037 million mt, decreasing by 34 percent year on year. In particular, in the given period the company’s shipments of seamless industrial pipes decreased by 11 percent year on year to 353,000 mt mostly due to weaker demand from industrial and construction companies and quarantine restrictions in the third quarter. In the meantime, ChelPipe’s OCTG and O&G pipe shipments fell by 17 percent and by four percent, both year on year, to 297,000 mt and 97,000 mt, respectively, due to weaker demand for hydrocarbons as a result of reduced investments from oil companies. The company’s large diameter (LD) pipe shipments showed the largest decline. In the given period, its LD pipe shipments fell by 63 percent year on year to 261,000 mt. However, lower exports were offset by shipments to the domestic market.