Centravis is working on opening a production site in western Ukraine

The company will specialize in tool tubes for the automotive industry

Centravis, one of Europe’s largest suppliers of stainless steel pipes, is working on opening another industrial site closer to the western border of Ukraine. This was stated by the company’s production director Andriy Krasyuk in an interview for GMK Center.

The new company will specialize in tool pipes for the automotive industry. It is planned to start production there with a volume of approximately 25% of what was done in the cold shop at the main facilities before the war.

The company has already taken a long-term lease of the workshop and moved part of the equipment from Nikopol.

“Our decision is dictated not only by the war, but also by the desire to be closer to our Western customers. Many of them conduct production audits. Plus the issue of logistics – the delivery time and cost play an important role,” he said.

The first pipes for decoration are planned to be issued in January 2023. Initially, the new production will depend on the hot facilities in Nikopol – they will produce a billet pipe from an empty rod. In the future, it is planned to attract suppliers of pipe billets from Europe and India.

“Despite all circumstances, we work, make plans and look to the future. We believe in our victory, we are waiting for our defenders to return home alive and unharmed, and we want to focus on ordinary life issues of peacetime as soon as possible,” Andriy Krasyuk summarizes.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Centravis is working with stoppages due to interruptions in the supply of electricity due to the shelling of the energy infrastructure by Russian forces. Despite this, at the beginning of December, the company completed the overhaul of the press line and put it into operation.

In January-November 2022, Centravis reduced production of pipes by 34% compared to the same period last year – to 10.6 thousand tons. Despite the significant reduction in production, the company’s revenue is about 90% of the pre-war 2021.