Piping heavyweight plays a global tune
CORINTH PIPEWORKS PLANS TO STRENGTHEN ITS WORLDWIDE SERVICE PROPOSITION BY DEVELOPING GLOBAL ALLIANCES WITH OTHER KEY PLAYERS

One of Greece’s industrial heavyweights, Corinth Pipeworks, is demonstrating its ambition. The company – based in Corinth, about 50 miles from Athens – supplies piping products to the oil and gas and water industries. It is the Mediterranean’s and the Middle East’s principal steel pipe manufacturer, exporting roughly 85 percent of production and servicing all the big names in the energy business, such as ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco.

THE MEDITERRANEAN and Middle East’s principal manufacturer of steel pipe, Corinth Pipeworks and has moved into coating operations to protect pipes against corrosion.

According to its Managing Director, Mr. Mitropoulou, there is still room for growth as the company spreads its wings. “Our strategic plan is to become more of a global player through alliances with another one or two global players,” he says.
“By having not only a regional but a global strength, we will be able to offer a full service to our main clients so that they can enjoy our services wherever they need the full range of pipe production, maintenance and logistics.”

Founded in 1969, Corinth has gone from strength to strength. It now operates worldwide with offices in 55 locations, including the U.S. It has also moved into coating operations, coating the pipes for corrosion protection.
Mr. Mitropoulou says that the company has always responded to customer needs and to changes in the marketplace. “Innovation has always been a part of this company,” he declares.
He sees the market for pipes supporting the energy and water industries as particularly buoyant. Indeed, the company is looking to double turnover from a projected $150 million in 2002 to around $300 million as early as 2003.

Corinth went public in 1998 with 25 percent of its shares floated on the Athens Stock Exchange. The remaining 75 percent is held by the two founding families, Mitropoulou and Stassinopoulos. The following year, it completed a $150 million investment program to upgrade and modernize its facilities. This included the establishment of a second production plant in the industrial zone of Thisvi in Viotia, 80 miles from Athens.
Mr. Mitropoulou says one of the company’s main competitive advantages is its location between east and west. As well as the U.S. market, it is an important supplier to the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa, and, of course, Europe. “Being located in the European Union means we have European standards and this conveys reliability,” he says.

Greece’s entry into the eurozone has also helped the company. “It has made business a lot easier because there are no conversion rates, so business will be more transparent. We always operated in U.S. dollars, so for us, it is not very different, but I expect we will be using more and more euros in the future.”
The American market – coordinated through a local sales office in Houston – remains vital for Corinth, accounting for about $40 million in sales, or around 10-12 percent of total exports. “Houston is an energy center, where decisions are made for the whole world, so we established a 100 percent subsidiary company. This operates as a regional office, coordinating our agents in the U.S., Canada and South America,” he says. “We produce all the pipes here and our office in Houston takes care of all the sales.”
But Mr. Mitropoulou says there are plans to build a production facility in the U.S. The company is looking for a partner such as a big engineering group or an oil company to help develop the local production site. “We plan to use our U.S. production facility to exploit the very important market there, and we want to maintain our entrepreneurial spirit, despite growing bigger,” he says.