OREANDA-NEWS. Vyksa Steel Works (OJSC VSW, Nizhny Novgorod region, a CJSC OMK company) has successfully completed field tests of large diameter pipes made from wide flat products of Heavy Plate Mill 5000, which purchases continuously cast slabs from OJSC NLMK.

These tests confirmed that 1,420 mm diameter pipes with a wall thickness of 27.7 mm made by VSW from K65 steel are fully compliant with requirements of OJSC Gazprom. Thus, they can be used for construction of gas pipelines with a working pressure of 11.8 MPa, such as the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta main gas pipeline. In December 2012, VSW successfully completed field tests of 1,420 mm diameter pipes with a wall thickness of 23 mm made from K65 steel for compliance with Gazprom's requirements.

Earlier, VSW certified and started manufacturing pipes of a different standard size from the wide sheets supplied by the Heavy Plate Mill 5000. OMK among other things supplies 1,219 mm diameter pipes with a wall thickness of 17.5 mm and outer and inner corrosion-resistant coating made from L555M/X80M steel for construction of the 3rd phase of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline. It has already shipped 1,020 mm diameter pipes with wall thicknesses of 12 mm and 14 mm made from К56 steel for construction of the Zapolyarye-Purpe oil pipeline operated by OJSC AK Transneft.

NLMK has been supplying continuously cast slabs to Heavy Plate Mill 5000 since it was launched in November 2011. Today, these shipments are conducted under a long-term contract between NLMK and OMK. The plant has already received over 400,000 tons of such steel products. NLMK is the first Russian steel company that started making continuously cast slabs with a thickness of 355 mm applied for production of wide sheets for LDPs. It is now possible to produce slabs with exclusive standards for the chemical makeup of a metal, surface smoothness and geometry thanks to strong partnership between two companies. This is an example of rewarding work, the results of which among other things contributed to phase-out of imports from the Russian pipe market.

VSW's successful certification and LDP production from its wide flat products prove the high quality and efficiency of Heavy Plate Mill 5000, which is operated by Vyksa Steel Works. It allows the company to abandon imports of foreign wide flat steel for pipe orders and fully enjoy the benefits offered by the high technology chain “wide flat steel - large diameter pipe” applied at OMK's fabrication yard in Vyksa.