Interpipe to build an additional shop to produce wheel pairs

The project is designed to help increase the metal products output

Ukraine’s industrial company Interpipe is going to build an additional shop for production of wheel pairs. This was stated by Denys Morozov, Interpipe’s Director for Economics and Finance, according to the Ukrainian News Agency.

“Now we have started a project to increase production of wheel pairs through building an additional shop. In Ukraine or Russia, wheel pairs are assembled on the spot, whereas Europe and America buy not wheels, but wheel pairs. We want to increase production of this product,” Morozov noted.

A mention was made that in 2020, the total volume of exports of wheels remained unchanged. Yet in the CIS countries, traffic volume dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic, which in turn depressed demand for car repairs and, as a result, for wheels.

“A demand for wheel products in Ukraine has also lowered. Interpipe supplies wheels to Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Baltic countries, and continues to cooperate with Belarusian BelAZ. At the same time, we have cut shipments of wheels to Russia, as a 34.22% duty is resumed since June, which substantially lowered return on sales,” he said.

The Company also plans to increase production of wheels for the passenger car wheels market. To this end, equipment was purchased to produce passenger car wheels.

“We take a lead in the cargo segment. And our current task is to enter the passenger one. So, we have spent $15 million to start the project and we are currently ready to launch this line,” Morozov added.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2019, Interpipe curtailed steel production by 4.2% against the previous year, down to 854.5 thousand tons. Production of pipes decreased by 13.3% to 587 thousand tons against 2018, whereas production of railway products grew by 11% to 207.7 thousand tons.

Interpipe is an international, vertically integrated pipe and wheel company, one of the top 10 global manufacturers of seamless pipes and one of the top 3 manufacturers of wrought wheels.