Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Nov. 16 /Trend D.Azizov /
JSC Uzbek Metallurgical Plant (JSC Uzmetcombinat in Bekabad, Tashkent region) is planning to start construction of a plant producing seamless 40-168 mm steel pipes with a wall thickness up to 25 mm for the oil and gas industry, a representative of the company told Trend on Friday.
According to the source, a $90 million feasibility study will be submitted by late January 2013 to the government for approval. The government is expected to approve the project and its funding during the first half of 2013.
This would allow the plant to announce a tender for the purchase of equipment early in the third quarter of next year and begin construction before the end of the year.
Commission of pipe production is scheduled for the end of 2014, reaching design capacity of 30 thousand tons of pipe per year by the end of 2015.
Uzbek-Russian-American joint venture Tashkent Pipe Plant is currently producing steel-welded tubes of various diameters for local engineering companies. Starting in 2000, production increased from four to more than 70,000 tons.
Prior to 2015, the joint venture intends to implement two projects to expand production of large diameter, steel-welded pipes with diameters from 325 mm to 720 mm and APL-SP SL pipes standard with diameters from 820 mm to 1620 mm.
The total design capacity of the two projects, valued at $9 million (7.4 million and 1.5 million respectively), is 24,000 tons of pipe annually. Funding of the projects will be provided by the company founders.
Uzmetkombinat is the only ferrous metallurgy factory in Central Asia working with scrap metal. It was commissioned in 1956 and accounts for 90 percent of steel products in the country. Previously, it recycled scrap metal delivered from all republics of Central Asia. Currently, due to lower scrap supply, the company is not operating at full capacity.
In 2011, the plant increased steel production 2.2 percent over previous year to 7,331,000 tons.
The company expects 2012 steel production to increase by 1.6 percent compared to 2011, bringing totals to 745,000 tons, with metal product service leases up 1.7 per cent to 720,000 tons.