Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (part of ChTPZ Group)’s finishing center now became the site for assembling the OCTG production facility. At the moment, the workers are piecing together the equipment meant for manufacturing of fittings with the diameter of up to 195 mm. The shop has already been fitted with two stampers and two rinsers as well as an automated conveying system in between. Next, two saws supplied by Austrian Linsinger will have to be installed. In addition to the assembly jobs, the workers are busy with the start-up and commissioning.

The enterprise is about to receive SMS Meer’s furnaces for the thermal treatment unit, mills for the pipe casing and producing string commissioning unit, the complex quality control devices supplied by the U.S.-based Tuboscope, paint spraying and packaging machinery, and so on. According to the schedule, the assembling of the main bits of equipment is to be completed by October 2008, while the finishing center will probably be launched in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant has been working on the center since March 2007; the facility is meant for improving the plant’s capacity in the field of oil country tubular goods production and manufacturing of producing strings (including highly durable ones and upset tubing), pipe casings, and highly durable corrosion- and cold-resistant oil-and-gas pipelines. The project requires a total of ?122m worth of investments.

‘Upon the completion of the finishing center, Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant will raise its OCTG output by 115,000 tons, thus helping us retain our share of the market and make our goods more competitive due to the packaged delivery option. In addition, this will mean ChTPZ Group will be able to offer its customers the entire range of OCTGs currently produced,’ the spokesperson for the Group said to UrBC.