Sales of pipes sound positive for the first three months of 2016. The business team under the leadership of Marcel Palai, General Manager Sales Radiators and Pipes, has been getting on well in meeting the Business Plan targets that they have set themselves for this year. It even seems that they will slightly exceed its fulfillment in the first quarter of this year. Taking into account the fact that pipes are considered to be a seasonal product and most of the big projects in Europe are currently "sleeping", this result can be regarded as a success. In addition, considerable overproduction can be still felt in this segment in our closest territories. The difficult situation was also confirmed at a recent meeting of the Association of Producers of Steel Tubes in the Czech Republic (AVOT), of which we are also an active member. "In the segment of pipes, cautious purchases continue, and customers typically wait until the last minute. Our advantage is flexibility as well as the fact that we have plenty of hot rolled coils from which the pipes are produced," says Marcel Palai. In his opinion, the sales team expects a challenging year, but we all believe that it will be successful after all.  

There may also be positive news in the start of the building season and recovery in the Polish market, where some larger and long-delayed gas projects have the "green light". The business team of Marcel Palai under Vice President Commercial Christian Korn is going to participate in the global Tube Düsseldorf exhibition, which takes place at the beginning of April. Our sales staff has scheduled meetings with our important customers there.  In addition, they cooperate continuously with colleagues from operations to optimize the management of basic material production (hot coils) with respect to orders received.