March 31, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company shipped 4,218,000 tons of steel pipes to consumers in 2012. The share of weldless pipes rose by 5.3% on the year 2011 and reached 2,497,000 tons. Thus the company’s share of the domestic market came to 24.7%, which allowed the enterprise to remain the market leader, TMK press service reports.

In fact, the company’s pipe production output went down by 0.3% in comparison with 2011: the production of welded pipes dropped by 7.5% down to 1,722,000 tons; the output of the company’s key produce, OCTG, actually rose by 9.5% and amounted to 40.6% in the total volume of shipments. The volume of premium threaded joint pipes went up by 29.9% and came to 613,000 tons.

In January through December 2012, domestic pipe consumption declined by 9.8% against the year 2011. At the same time, the shipments of TMK’s Russian division only decreased by 2.1%, down to 2,975,000 tons, while the shipments of the key products – weldless oil country tubular goods and weldless line pipes – rose by 11.8% and 13.2%, respectively. Remarkably, the weldless OCTG and line pipe shipments increased by 6.2% and 17.8%, respectively, in the last quarter of 2012 against the third quarter, the company’s press release states.