Report: TMK raises pipeline prices 15% amid market recovery

MOSCOW, Jan 25 (PRIME) -- Russian oil and gas pipe maker TMK raised pipeline prices on the U.S. market by 15%, the first time since early 2015, in the wake of a market recovery in late 2016, CEO of the company’s U.S.-based subsidiary TMK IPSCO Pyotr Golitsyn told Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday.

“The markets are restoring rapidly. We have been raising supplies every month since February 2016. But the last month’s events are especially impressing,” Golitsyn said.

The manager also projects an additional 50% advance in pipe sales this year, to 3.8 million tonnes from 2.2 million tonnes in 2016.

Bloomberg said TMK may take advantage of Trump’s industrial policy and have the results similar to those it had before the U.S. imposed sanctions on deposit development equipment in 2014. “They (the sanctions) created a closed market. If we look 20 years into the future, we will see that the sanctions had a positive influence from the point of view of import replacement,” Golitsyn said.

CEO praised the U.S. president’s Tuesday’s decision to resume two oil pipeline projects - Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline.

“This is a signal that economically feasible projects, whose costs have already declined, will not be canceled at the last moment due to political reasons,” Golitsyn said.

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