Business activity in the seamless pipe market in Italy has been improving only very slowly over the past month amid tight liquidity and quiet demand from the key seamless pipe user sectors like machine building, construction and commercial vehicles. However, Italian suppliers have attempted to increase their quotations due to higher domestic scrap prices across Europe. Thus, domestic and export prices of Italian seamless pipes have moved up by €40-50/mt ($43-54/mt) over the past month. During the period under review, prices of Romanian and Czech seamless pipes for Italy have risen by €10-25/mt ($11-24/mt). Offers of Ukrainian material have decreased by €10-15/mt ($11-16/mt) in the past month, while import quotations of seamless pipes from China have stayed mostly unchanged. Meanwhile, market participants are still cautious since demand for seamless pipes in the domestic and international markets remains unsatisfactory. At the same time, seamless pipe prices in Italy are unlikely to soften in the short term, amid anticipation of higher demand from foreign buyers and expected better conditions in the domestic market before the summer slowdown.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size as per ASTM or EN are at about €1,020-1,050/mt ($1,091-1,123/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,050-1,080/mt ($1,124-1,156/mt) FOB.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €620-670/mt ($663-696/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €840-855/mt ($899-915/mt) CPT (12.3-13.8 percent AD duty not included).
Prices for Romanian origin seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Roman) of 3"-10" grade B made to ASTM or as per EN are at about €930-975/mt ($995-1,065/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €910-950/mt ($974-1,017/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.07