The Russian pipe producer TMK Group (TMK) has issued its production data for the first half of 2008.
According to its release, the company reduced its total shipment of pipes by five percent year on year to 1.495 million metric tons in the first six months of 2008.
During the period in question, the company's domestic shipments declined 7.6 percent on the back of a general reduction of 11 percent in Russian domestic pipe consumption during the same period. Nevertheless, TMK still saw an increase of 2.2 percent in its share of the Russian market, compared to the first half of 2007.
The planned commissioning of a PQF technology mill at TAGMET in the first half of September 2008, necessitating the shutdown of obsolete capacity for the installation of the technology in question, has affected seamless pipe shipments during the first half of 2008. Seamless pipe shipments in the said period decreased by six percent year on tear to 985,000 mt, including a six percent decline in OCTG shipments.
The delays and postponements of some large oil and gas pipeline projects affected Russian demand for large diameter pipes and, thereby, TMK's shipments of these products. However, TMK was able to offset the reduction in large diameter pipe shipments by increasing its shipments of welded line pipes and industrial pipes.
Giving its outlook for the second half of 2008, TMK stated that due to expectations of an increase in the number of pipeline tenders, the outlook for the large diameter pipe market in the second half of the year remains favorable. TMK plans to take advantage of this situation with its new large diameter pipe mill producing thick walled longitudinal welded pipes, coupled with internal and external anticorrosion coating capacity, which will be commissioned at Volzhsky Pipe Plant in the second half of the year.