One of the largest Russian pipe producers, ChTPZ Group, which consists of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) and Pervouralsky Novotrubny Works (PNTZ), has announced that in 2009 it registered a 24 percent decrease year on year in its pipe deliveries to 1.131 million metric tons.
Accordingly, in 2009, the pipe deliveries of ChTPZ amounted to 583,000 metric tons, while the annual deliveries of PNTZ totaled 548,000 metric tons of pipes. In the previous year, the group managed to implement its strategy aimed at increasing shipments of high value-added products. In particular, the group raised its large diameter pipe shipments to the Russian domestic market by 16 percent year on year and increased its exports by 20 percent year on year.
In December 2009, ChTPZ Group's total pipe shipments more than doubled, amounting to 125,000 metric tons compared with 59,000 metric tons in the same month of the previous year. The growth of shipments at the end of the year occurred primarily in the segment of large diameter pipes, as in December ChTPZ started the production of pipes for Transneft's East Siberia-Pacific Ocean-2 oil pipeline.