The Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe has resumed production of pipe products at its Romanian plant Interpipe Roman, which was acquired from ArcelorMittal.
“On April 1, we took control of the plant, unfortunately without stocks of semi-finished products in storage. We needed time to deliver the raw material, and we resumed production on April 14, starting with the 16-inch automatic pipe-rolling mill,” said the company’s CEO Luca Zanotti in an interview with the publication Metal Expert.
According to him, Interpipe is currently focusing on increasing supplies of semi-finished products to the Romanian plant, while the rolling and finishing rates of the final product will depend on market demand.
Zanotti also said that Interpipe Roman is equipped with three pipe-rolling mills, but in recent years only one mill has been operating.
“Our business plan is to restore production to that level,” he said.
In addition, the CEO stressed that Interpipe does not intend to relocate production or reduce pipe output at its Ukrainian plants in favor of Interpipe Roman.
“Currently, semi-finished products for the Romanian plant are supplied by our main electric steelmaking facility Interpipe Steel and partly purchased on the open market. But we are already investing in a steelmaking complex in the city of Dnipro to fully secure the needs of Interpipe Roman in raw materials,” Luca Zanotti noted.
