July 23, 2014. In the first half of the year, Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) shipped 2,056,000,000 kg of steel pipes to customers. The shipments in Q2 were 1.2% higher than in Q1, while the shipments of weldless pipes actually dropped by 1.3% against the first half of 2013 and amounted to 1,227,000,000 kg in the first half of 2014. In the second quarter, the weldless pipe shipments also decreased by 3.9% compared with the first quarter and came to 601,000,000 kg, the company report states.

As for welded pipes, shipments declined by 7.6% in the first half of 2014 compared with the first half of 2013 and reached 829,000,000 kg, which had to do with dropping demand in the LDP and line pipe segment. In the second quarter of 2014, welded pipe shipments rose by 9.3% against the first quarter.

The amount of OCTG (TMK's key product) shipped in the given period stood at 971,000,000 kg, which was 8.1% more than in the first half of 2013. In the second quarter, these shipments were 2.1% smaller than in the first quarter.

In terms of premium threaded joints, 404,000 of these were shipped in the first half of 2014, which exceeded the figures for last year by 9.2%. In the second quarter of 2014, shipments rose by 9.5% compared with the first quarter.

In the second half of 2014, TMK expects the Russian pipe products market to grow due to more horizontal drilling operations and due to the development of non-typical oil and gas deposits. Given these factors, the company expects a stable demand for OCTG, especially their weldless variety.