MOSCOW — JSC Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) saw shipments fall 4 percent in 2012 on lower consumption of large-diameter pipe in Russia, the company said March 18.

Full-year shipments stood at 1.7 million tonnes, including 980,000 tonnes of seamless pipe and 744,000 tonnes of welded pipe.

The decline was attributed to a fall in demand from state-run gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, the product’s principal buyer in the country, which completed earlier projects but hadn’t started any new ones.

However, Gazprom in October announced the start of the second stage of its eastern gas program, for which the main project involves construction of a 1,988-mile gas pipeline from the Chayanda gas field in eastern Siberia to the Far East port city of Vladivostok. Gazprom in early December also started construction of South Stream, designed to transport Russian gas to southern and eastern Europe.

ChelPipe’s large-diameter pipe shipments stood at 695,000 tonnes last year, it said, without giving a percentage change. Oil country tubular goods (OCTG) shipments stood at 254,000 tonnes.

ChelPipe increased its large-diameter pipe shipments to the Commonwealth of Independent States last year, it said.

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Steel First.