At a working meeting between NLMK Group president Oleg Bagrin and OMK Group president Vladimir Markin held on June 20 in Novolipetsk, Russian steelmaker NLMK announced that it has supplied OMK Group, a leader in the Russian large diameter pipe market, with over 1 million mt of slabs for the production of large diameter pipes since 2012.
The contract between NLMK and OMK was signed in August 2012 and was renewed in November 2013. Under the renewal, in 2014-2016 NLMK will supply OMK subsidiary Vyksa Steel Works with more than 2 million mt of slabs.
NLMK Group president Oleg Bagrin said that the partnership between the two companies "is strategically important in the effort to reduce imports by manufacturing high-quality steel domestically". OMK Group president Vladimir Markin added that the supply agreement has allowed OMK "to consistently reduce the amount of imported tube plates while maintaining the consistently high quality".
"The next step for OMK is to certify our plates rolled from Lipetsk slabs for the second string of the underwater portion of the South Stream. We expect this to allow us to stop importing high-quality plates and generate substantial value for the Russian budget," said Mr. Markin.