Ukraine hopes to boost duty-free pipe supplies to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan in 2013

Kyiv, August 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine hopes to increase quotas for the duty-free supplies of pipes to the Customs Union member countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan) to 320,000 tonnes in 2013, according to Valeriy Muntiyan, the government envoy for cooperation with Russia, the CIS, EurAsEC and other regional associations.

"The Ukrainian side will continue to negotiate, we will be doing our best to make this volume grow, not decline, which means that our figure is to be around 320,000 tonnes per year," he said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on Tuesday.

Muntiyan said that Russia on August 13, 2012, signed amendments to an agreement on pipe supplies from Ukraine to the Customs Union countries, which allows 150,000 tonnes of Ukrainian steel pipes to be supplied on the duty-free basis in the second half of 2012.

"As for [pipes made of] stainless steel, we took into account historical experience for the past seven not three years, and thus our figure is 5,740 tonnes [in the second half of 2012 - Interfax-Ukraine note], which satisfies producers," he added.

As reported, Russia on December 29, 2005, introduced anti-dumping duties for the imports of pipes from Ukraine for five years, and then the term of the duty was extended to November 2015. Following the adoption by Ukraine, namely by the Interpipe company, of voluntary commitments to restrict its supplies to the Customs Union, the anti-dumping duties were suspended. In addition, Interpipe's enterprises were authorized to supply pipes to Russia within the following quotas: 411,000 tonnes in 2007, 419,000 in 2008, 427,600 tonnes in 2009. The quota for 2010 was set only for the first quarter of that year and was 55,000 tonnes, further negotiations ended inconclusively, and as of April 1, 2010, Russia re-imposed the anti-dumping duty.

Under a special agreement, Interpipe was able to supply 300,000 tonnes of pipes to Russia in 2011 on a duty-free basis. From October 1 to December 31, 2011, Ukrainian producers were also allowed to ship 18,000 tonnes of pipes to Russia and 14,000 tonnes of pipes to Kazakhstan. The two countries also joined the agreement due to the creation of the Customs Union.

At the end of December 2011 Ukraine and the Customs Union members signed an agreement on the duty-free supply of 264,000 tonnes of Ukrainian pipes in total in January-June 2012. In particular, 72,000 tonnes of pipes were to be supplied to Belarus, 42,000 tonnes to Kazakhstan, and 150,000 tonnes to Russia. Volumes of pipe shipments for the second half of 2012 were to be determined after further consultations.