Despite weak buying activity in the Italian seamless pipe market, prices for locally produced seamless pipes have remained unchanged over the past month due to relatively firm export demand. Offers of Chinese materials have decreased by around €20-25/mt (down $25-32/mt) over the past month, while import prices of seamless pipes from Ukraine have decreased by a maximum of €10/mt (max. $13/mt). Quotations of Romanian and Czech seamless pipes have moved up by €10-20/mt (down $11/mt) over the same period. Buying activity in the domestic market is expected to remain low amid tight liquidity and poor demand from consuming industries. Market insiders expect that prices for import and domestic seamless pipes in Italy will hover at current levels in the short term.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size as per ASTM or EN are at about €970-1,030/mt ($1,242-1,318/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,000-1,050/mt ($1,280-1,344/mt) FOB.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €560-615/mt ($717-787/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 €780-810/mt ($998-1,037/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 €960-1,000/mt ($1,229-1,280/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €940-970/mt ($1,203-1,242/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.28