UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 24, 2017. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) supplied 850,000,000 kf of steel pipes to its customers in the first quarter of the year, which was 3.7% less than in QIV’16 and 0.6% more than in QI’16, the company press service reports.

The company sold 658,000,000 kg of seamless pipes in the first quarter of the year, which exceeded the figures for the previous quarter by 4% and those for one year earlier by 16.7% due to stable demand on the oil and gas companies’ part.

Welded pipe shipments decreased by 230% against the previous quarter and by 31.8% against one year earlier, down to 192,000,000 kg because of the expected drop in the demand for large-diameter pipes.

OCTG shipments amounted to 426,000,000 kg in QI’17, which exceeded the figures for QIV’16 by 11.6% and those for QI’16 by 36.7%. This proved the company’s key and most profitable product on offer. The sales increase had to do with the growing demand for both seamless and welded OCTGs needed for large-scale drilling projects both in Russia and the United States. For one, the company’s American divisions handled three times more seamless OCTGs in the first quarter of the year compared with the earlier periods.