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In 2012, output was down by 3% year-on-year to 9.7 million tonnes.
Total steel pipe output volumes last year were depressed by lower demand for large-diameter (LD) pipes. This came about because state-run gas monopoly Gazprom, the product’s principal buyer in the country, had finished its earlier projects and had not started any new ones.
In October, however, Gazprom announced the start of the second stage of its Eastern Gas Programme, whose main project is the construction of a 3,200km gas pipeline from the huge Chayanda gas field in Eastern Siberia to the Far East port city of Vladivostok.
The pipeline is to be launched in late 2017.
In early December, Gazprom started construction of South Stream, designed to transport Russian gas to southern and eastern Europe.
The first gas supplies through the pipeline, whose offshore section will stretch for 900km across the Black Sea, are scheduled for late 2015.