Long start of the Ukrainian tube producers, results of January…

Long start of the Ukrainian tube producers, results of January 2004.

January may be traditionally regarded as starting month for the Ukrainian tube industry. At that, figures of production and trade are rather moderate. January 2004 didn’t become an exception. According to Metallurgprom Production Association, Ukraine’s production of steel tubes made up only 79% to the level of January 2003. If compared to January 2003, production of January 2004 made up 74.6% to the analogous period of 2003. Exports has also considerably decreased, mostly because of the delay in licenses registration for steel tube supplies to Russia, which is traditional buyer of the Ukrainian tube products. At the same time, tube imports reduced by 51.9%, if compared to the average monthly level of 2003. As the result, the advantage was received by the supplies to the Ukraine’s domestic market. According to the estimates, total supplies to the Ukraine’s domestic market, including import, increased by 38.9% against the average monthly figure of 2003. Such a trend is caused by export decrease, and from the other hand, by the ability of the Ukrainian buyers to pay more for the Ukrainian tubes. For reference, January, 1 2004 the Interpipe Corporation increased steel tube prices for the Ukrainian buyers by 30-35%. Most probably, this situation may take place during all the first quarter of 2004.
According to Infor-Metal LLC (www.infor-metal.com)