Governor Sumin visits ChTPZ

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin visited Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) to look at the new LDP mill. The Governor was accompanied by the Soviet of the Federation member Andrei Komarov, Deputy Governor Yuri Klepov, head of the regional employment center Leonid Shusharin, and Mayor of Chelyabinsk Mikhail Yurevitch.

First, Sumin checked out an electric welding department that has received over $150m worth of investments over the last few years. For one, two anti-corrosion coating production lines have been launched there. The workers presented one of these lines to the Governor, showing all the process stages. These coatings actually make a main pipeline last two times longer.

Then, the Governor and ChTPZ BOD Chairman Alexander Fedorov took a look at the future LDP shop’s construction site. The LDP mill is expected to produce great quality large-diameter pipes for the Russian market (which means projects involving some major oil and gas pipelines in the Far East and Europe). The mill’s estimated output comes to 600,000 tons of pipes a year.

The project’s cost comes to about $600m, with over $400m already invested. This money is used to put up the shop and acquire all the machinery. For instance, the equipment supplied by Germany-based SMS Meer has already been paid for in full. However, once the foreign banks stopped offering loans to the enterprise, finding the remainder of the sum needed grew difficult. This is why the management is now negotiating with a number of Russian banks, including Gazprombank. Fedorov also spoke about the support rendered to the plant by Chelyabinsk Region Government. For instance, the plant has been placed on the list of the country’s top priority enterprises, so some state subsidies might be provided for the mill.

The spokesperson for the Governor reports Sumin spoke very highly about the LDP mill’s importance for the Russian economy in general and the region’s two major industrial enterprises (Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works and Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant) in particular.

‘The construction process still fits in the schedule, with no delays. The equipment is all in its place, the building and assembly jobs are in full swing. The main thing is that we’ve already got some orders from the major pipeline developers. Both the managers and the workers are doing a great job of implementing such a daring project in such difficult times,’ the Governor said.

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