Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK)’s shipment output dropped by 21% in January-August 2009 against January-August 2008 due to plummeting market demand in the first half of the year, the spokesperson for TMK says.

Nevertheless, the company delivered 716,000 tons of steel pipes to consumers in the third quarter of 2009, which actually exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 15%. This decrease in shipments had to do with the gradually recovering demand for tubes and pipes as well as with the company winning a larger share of the market.