Salzgitter: South Stream Supply Suspension Lifted

German steelmaker Salzgitter said the suspension of its agreement to supply pipes for Gazprom's South Stream gas pipeline project had been lifted.

Gazprom abandoned South Stream in December under pressure  from the European Union and is now building an alternative pipeline called Turkish Stream to a planned gas hub on the Turkish border with Greece.

Salzgitter said on Monday its Europipe joint venture with Dillinger Huettenwerke had been told the supply suspension was lifted with immediate effect and negotiations about resuming supplies of more than 150,000 tonnes of pipes should start soon.
 

The company said it could not yet quantify the positive  effect on its profits but that it should be covered by its  full-year forecast for a pretax profit in the low to medium double-digit millions of euros.

Shares in Salzgitter rose 0.5 percent to 34.48 euros by 1338 GMT, slightly outperforming the basic resources index.

South Stream was designed to deliver gas from Russia to western and southern Europe via the Black Sea and Bulgaria, bypassing Ukraine.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)