Interpipe could return to the Russian steel pipes market if the Rouble gets stronger and the prices increase.
“The key question here is the economical expedience of supplying to that market. With the current Rouble exchange rate and the 19% duty on pipes the deliveries to Russia are economically inexpedient. But if the Russian market situation changes, that would be an argument for us to return there”, said the company economy and finances director Denis Morozov.
According to him, the company wasn’t able to compensate for the loss of the Russia and other Customs Union markets (40% of sales).
“In 2014 we supplied 20 thousand tons of pipes to Russia each month. In the H1 2015 our deliveries fell to 3 thousand tons per month”, he noted.
Morozov added that the company decreased its Moscow office (Interpipe-M) to correspond to the current sales levels. (Ukrainian metal)