Page 40 - ITAtube-journal_2-13

40 ITAtube Journal No2/September 2013
Special: Ukrainian companies
New U$700 million Interpipe steel mill in
Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine creates 700 new jobs
Interpipe, a leading steel pipe manufacturing company
Last October Ukrainian pipe pro-
ducer Interpipe, one of the top ten
manufacturers in the world, offi-
cially opened its new electric arc
steel mill which took five years to
build. The importance of this new
project to the Ukrainian economy
was underlined by the presence of
Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanuk-
ovych at the grand opening, which
was hosted by Interpipe’s owner
Viktor Pinchuk.
Italian company Danieli supplied
the technology to build the mill
that has a current capacity of 1.32
million tonnes per year. The output
will be used mainly to supply the
company’s NTRP and Interpipe Niko
Tube plants but the mill could have
its capacity increased to 2 million
tonnes per year to sell excess pro-
duction to export markets.
At the opening Mr Pinchuk ex-
pressed his pride in the investment:
“This mill is the first and only one
of its kind, built for the workers,
the city (Dnepropetrovsk) and so-
ciety. And for me the mill is also a
tribute of honour to generations of
Ukrainian metallurgists”. The new
mill is a key element in Interpipe’s
strategy to increase pipe exports
to the EU as well as to reduce the
company’s energy costs.
The NTRP plant produces seamless
pipes ranging from 33 mm to 377
mm diameter that are used in the
oil and gas, power generation and
machinery industries whilst the
Interpipe Niko Tube factory makes
seamless pipes ranging from 32 mm
to 114.3 mm for similar markets.
Mr Pinchuk is well known for being
an avid art lover and as part of the
mill construction commissioned
Olafur Eliasson to design five large
scale pieces of art positioned both
inside and outside the mill. He ex-
plained that visitors to the inte-
grated mill and exhibition of art
will be encouraged as he sees the
site as “a metaphor of the industri-
al renaissance of Ukraine.”
One of Olafur Eliasson’s works of art outside the new Interpipe steel mill