PRESS: Gazprom in talks to get 20% discount on pipes

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom is negotiating a 20% discount with pipe producers, business daily Vedomosti reported on Wednesday, citing four people close to the sides of the negotiations.

One of the sources said that the decision has been already made and all pipe producers agreed on the discount. Two sources said that the issue was discussed between Gazprom and pipe producers’ executives on Tuesday but no final decision has been made. One more source said that according to the position of Gazprom, the discount must amount to 20% and the decision must be agreed upon until the end of the week.

A source close to one of the pipe producers said that the reason for Gazprom’s intent to change the purchase price is the appearance of a new player, the Zagorsk pipe plant, to the market in July 2017. The plant offered pipes 13–15% cheaper and promised to cut the price 20–25%. Gazprom has already ordered 112,000 tonnes of pipes from the plant which has a capacity of 500,000 tonnes a year.

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