TMK raises steel output 12.3 percent in Q1

TMK's steel output increased 12.3 percent to 558,000 tons year on year in the first quarter of 2006. In January-March of 2006, TMK shipped to consumers 701,000 tones of various kinds of pipes and 168,000 tones of saleable rolled steel and section, which is respectively 7.8% and 93.4% more than in the first quarter of 2005. TMK, which manages Russia's headliners of pipe production like Volzhsky Pipe Plant, Sinarsky Pipe Plant, Seversky Tube Works, and Taganrogsky Metallurgical Works, is one of the largest holding of Russian pipe industry, with total annual capacity of 3.7 million pipes.