Izhora pipe plant hopes for stability of demand

The Izhora pipe plant (ITZ) changed its management this year. The rolled pipes products director of division Severstal Russian Steel, V. Motorin has answered for questions of the magazine Metallosnabzheniye i sbyt.

Q.What do you expect from the market of pipe products in 2014 in terms of capacity and production results?
A.There are reasons to believe that the market will be characterized by the relative stability of demand, and possibly, by  aninsignificant increase in the consumption of pipe products - at the level of 5-10%. Although certain economic risks may occur (none is insured against them), we count on favorable conditions.

Q.What will be able to support the consumption of pipes in the Russian market, if the parameters and terms of the launch of the already declared pipelines are revised?
A.Naturally, planning our activities, we focus primarily on needs of our key customers - Gazprom and Transneft. We count on volumes, received during auction. In particular, South Stream enabled us to seriously load capacities of the plant and LPC -3. In the case of changes in the marketp situation, we will look for additional sales opportunities, will continue to develop technical and technological capacity and service direction.