OREANDA-NEWS. On 21 January 2009 was announced, that Vyksa Steel Works, (VSW, Nizhny  Novgorod Region), part of United Metallurgical Company (OMK) had started to dispatch to its customers medium-diameter pipes made of steel coils manufactured at OMK's Casting and Rolling Complex (CRC, Nizhni Novgorod Region), with Phase 1 put into operation on October 3, 2008.

The first batch of 1.1 thousand tonnes of casing pipes (diameter: 168 mm; wall thickness: 8.9 mm; steel grade: 22GYu) designed for oil wells was dispatched to oil companies. Coming to a close is a shipment of another batch of 1.6 thousand tonnes of casing pipes (diameter: 245 mm; wall thickness: 8.94 mm; steel grade: G55) to US-based EXPLORICA.

From December, according to VSW Executive Director Vladimir Kochetkov, Electric-Weld Pipe Workshop No. 5 of the VSW facilities for small- and medium-diameter pipes, specializing in the production of casing pipes, began to use CRC-made rolled products only, so VSW stopped purchases for this workshop from smelters. "Using metal made by our Company will improve competitiveness of our products owing to the stable high quality of pipe billets, which is especially relevant in today's complicated market environment," he said.

VSW produced its first batch of medium-diameter oil and gas pipes using CRC-made steel coils in October this year.