CHTPZ Group sees pipe shipments plummet 36% in 8 mths
YEKATERINBURG. Sept 18 (Interfax) - The ChTPZ Group saw pipe shipments plummet 36% year-on-year in January-August to 736,400 tonnes, the group, which specializes in oil and gas piping, said in a statement.
The Group's Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) sold 378,000 tonnes of pipe in the eight months, including 233,800 tonnes of large-diameter tubes. August shipments came to 53,100 tonnes and 31,500 tonnes, respectively.
The ChTPZ Group's Pervouralsk Novotrubny Pipe Works (PNTZ) from the Sverdlovsk region sold 358,400 tonnes of pipe in the eight months, including 48,000 tonnes in August.
The group also said its shareholders had approved guarantees for loans from Gazprombank, Raiffeisenbank and Bayerische HPV.
Gazprombank opened 12-month credit facilities of 5 billion rubles for PNTZ and 2.5 billion rubles for Uraltrubostal Trading House in May this year; Raiffeisenbank agreed to lend CJSC Rimera up to $100 million in December 2007; and Bayerische HPV lent PNTZ 97.9 million euro in June 2007.
CHTPZ is discussing up to 200 million euro in new loans with Gazprombank to finish building an electrowelding shop.
ChTPZ Group unites companies specializing in the ferrous metallurgy sector. It consists of the Chelyabinsk and Pervouralsk pipe mills as well as ChTPZ-Meta, a company specializing in scrap metal collection and processing; metal trading company Uraltrubostal Trading House; Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant ; and oil industry services provider Rimera. Arkley Capital S.a r.l., Luxembourg, manages ChTPZ Group's assets.