OREANDA-NEWS. Vyksa Steel Works (VSW Open Joint Stock Company, based in Nizhny Novgorod, part of United Metallurgical Company, OMK CJSC, Moscow) has been voted the best exporter to CIS countries in the “Ferrous Metallurgy - Ferrous Metallurgy Products" category, based on the results of a competition held by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.

As part of the “2013 Best Russian Exporter" competition, the Ministry's department of foreign economic relations assessed the activities of companies working in 23 industry branches. Winners were named in each category. The awards ceremony will take place in Yekaterinburg during the annual Innoprom-2014 industrial exhibition on July 10, 2014.

“In 2013, the volume of pipe exports from VSW rose by 10% to 240,000 tons. CIS countries accounted for the main bulk of the deliveries, primarily large diameter pipes for building the Central Asia-China-3 gas pipeline. VSW is also delivering railway wheels of different designs to over 30 countries in the world. Over the last five years, around 300,000 wheels have been delivered to CIS countries, and over 160,000 wheels to other countries. The list of foreign consumers of Vyksa wheels is constantly growing.

“This year, owing to the implementation of South Stream, the company has an opportunity to reach even better results in its foreign economic activities," said Sergey Filippov, VSW's Executive Director, commenting on the factory's award.

In the last five years, OMK has participated in the most important international projects. In particular, the company is the only domestic pipe supplier for two offshore branches of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the first and second stages of the Central Asia-China gas pipelines, the NOPL (South Africa) Nigerian gas pipeline, and other projects.

Based on the results of the tenders held in the beginning of this year, OMK will deliver over 600 km of large diameter pipes produced at VSW for the construction of the first two offshore branches of the South Stream gas pipeline. This accounts for a third of the overall length of both branches of the main pipeline.