In January-June Interpipe supplied around 18 thousand tons of pipes to Russia, down from 120 thousand tons in the first half of 2014.
“In 2014 our sales volumes in pipes went down by 20%, in wheels – by around 30%. The key problem that we have encountered was the fall in supplies to Russia. In 2015 the situation worsened: if in the first half of 2014 we were selling about 20 thousand tons of pipes to Russia per month, this year it’s just 3 thousand tons”, said the Interpipe economics and finances director Denis Morozov.
According to him, some of the reasons for this drop are duties for Ukrainian pipes, fall of the Russian ruble exchange rate to dollar and the political crisis.
The decrease in wheels sales in 2014 was mostly due to the demand fall on the local market, caused by the deep crisis in the Ukrainian railroad car manufacture.
In the meantime Interpipe doesn’t supply pipes to Russia.
“We’ve been selling the last pipes we had in Russia as of January 1. Now we don’t restock them. But we’re constantly monitoring the market and would renew supplies. We do deliver wheels to Russia though. Economical expedience remains, but sales volumes have decreased”, said Denis Morozov. (Ukrainian metal)