In 2022, Ukrtruboprom has reduced the production of pipes by 37.9% compared to the previous year – down to 449.7 thousand tons.
According to the association, all the plants showed negative dynamics last year. “Interpipe Niko Tube and Trubostal decreased their production of seamless pipes by 31.1% and 61.6%, respectively, Centravis – stainless pipes by 38.3%, Interpipe NMTZ – electric-welded pipes by 67.1%. The production of tubes at Oskar fell by 20%, and only Ukrtruboizol, an IPO, reached the level of production the year before last.
At the same time it is reminded that Dnepropetrovsk pipe plant is idle and is in the state of liquidation.
Director General of Ukrtruboprom Association Georgiy Polskiy noted that at the end of winter last year, after the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, virtually the entire pipe industry came to a halt. Nevertheless, later on the plants managed to partially restore production, and in the summer to have a stable load, although we cannot speak about pre-war volumes.
“A new test for the industry was the enemy strikes on the energy infrastructure facilities. The peak of the rocket attacks was in November-December, the country was several times plunged into blackout, pipe plants were limited by power supply and could not work rhythmically. As a result the production of pipes by the end of the year dropped below April 2022. On the whole, the last year output of pipes in Ukraine went down by 38%,” says the head of the Association.
He says that break up of the traditional logistic schemes, in particular, blocking of the Ukrainian seaports at the Black Sea, had an extremely negative influence on the industry. As a result, the companies used longer routes for exporting their products through Western border crossings and European seaports. This led to a rise in logistics costs by 2-3 times and hit the cost of Ukrainian products.
“Since autumn, pipe companies have had another challenge – export of scrap metal. From October to December the volume of exports reached about 25 thousand tons, increasing the deficit in the domestic market. At the beginning of 2023 the problem became catastrophic, because only in two months of this year export of scrap metal has already reached 23 thousand tons. This threatens the stable work of Ukrainian pipe enterprises”, – said Polskyy.
As reported, Ukraine in 2021 increased the production of pipes by 15.1% compared with the previous year – up to 980.7 thousand tons, including enterprises “Ukrtruboprom” increased their production by 32.6% – to 710.5 tons.
