OMK buys finishing plant in Texas, to up U.S. pipe sales to 200,000 tonnes by 2014
MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - United Metallurgical Company (OMK) acquired its first overseas asset, the TTS pipe finishing plant in Texas, for an undisclosed amount at the end of last year, OMK said in a statement.
TTS is capable of finishing 150,000 tonnes of OCTG pipes per year.
OMK has also started to build a pipe mill of its own, capacity 150,000-200,000 tonnes of OCTG pipes per year, in the United States. The plant, which should achieve capacity as early as next year, will use feedstock from OMK's own steel smelter in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region.
OMK aims to be selling 200,000 tonnes of pipes in the U.S. in 2014.
OMK has also set a trading company up. It hopes to increase its share of the U.S. welded pipes market, the world's biggest, via direct sales end consumers. In the U.S. itself, OMK plans to produce the sort of pipes that its flagship Vyksa pipe mill in Russia cannot supply.
Vyksa Steel Works (VMZ) is Russia's biggest pipe mill. It is also a major producer of railcar wheels. VMZ produced 1 million tonnes of large-diameter pipes in 2011, 22% less than in 2010, and plans to produce more than 1 million tonnes in 2012.
OMK is one of Russia's largest producers of pipes, railcar wheels, and other metal products for energy, transport and industrial companies.
OMK also includes the Chusovoi and Schyolkovo metallurgical plants, Almetyevsk Tube Works, pipe component maker Trubodetal and coke producer Gubakhinsky Koks.