It is reported that the shareholders of Seversky Tube Works, Sinarskiy Pipe Works and Taganrog Metallurgical Works, subsidiaries of Russian pipe producer TMK, have approved a move to secure a three-year credit facility worth Ruble 3 billion (approx. $93.3 million) from Russia's state-run bank VTB.
Analysts consider that TMK's debt load is almost close to critical, and subsequently may still grow; in September 2009 TMK must repay $300 million in Eurobonds. At the beginning of the year TMK raised a set of loans from the largest Russian private sector bank Gazprombank for an aggregate amount of about $1.1 billion for a term of two and a half years to finance the acquisition of the US tubular business of IPSCO.