OREANDA-NEWS. February 27, 2010. Frank Rittner, Director for Strategy and Business Development at Interpipe, recently took part as a speaker at the Fifteenth Annual International CIS Metals Summit held on 17-19 February in Moscow. The Summit is an Adam Smith conference addressing key issues for both the mining and metals sectors, such as pricing, investment and access to energy sources.

The CIS Metals Summit also highlighted the main challenges for the industry, presented the opinions of the biggest players and the views of the best CIS and international analysts. Frank Rittner gave a presentation about “The sources of competitiveness”. In his presentation, Frank Rittner spoke about the system of continuous improvement (SCI) that has been in operation at Interpipe’s mills since 2008. The SCI is a program of ‘safety production’ based on four components: ‘manage’, ‘see’, ‘improve’ and ‘standardize’. These components allow Interpipe to improve the quality of products, effectiveness as well as the culture of production at the mills.

Frank Rittner said: “In order to compete on international markets Interpipe has implemented a strategy based on three elements: vertical product integration, the enhancement of high margin products in the company's portfolio and also strengthening Interpipe's position on the key strategic markets of Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa. We strive to be closer to our customers building long term partnership”.