Demand in the Turkish seamless pipe market remains slow, despite expectations of an improvement in line with increasing construction activity. Sluggish demand from end-users and tight liquidity continue to negatively affect activity levels. At the same time, overseas suppliers are pursuing different pricing policies. Thus, prices for Chinese seamless pipes have declined by $10-20/mt over the past month, while prices of Romanian seamless pipes have moved up by around $20/mt over the same period. At the same time, import quotations of Ukrainian and Russian seamless pipes have remained almost unchanged.
Meanwhile, Turkish buyers expect prices to go down and are avoiding bookings. Demand from consuming industries has remained weak and is not expected to improve in the short term.
Chinese suppliers are offering seamless pipes of 2"-10" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L to the Turkish market in the price range of $870-930/mt CFR, while offers of casing of J55 grade made to API 5CT are at about $1,030-1,050/mt CFR.
May production pipes from Ukrainian producers of 2"-6" grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are being offered to the Turkish market at about $935-960/mt CFR, while pipes with 60.3-168.3 mm diameter of steel grade 10, 20 made to GOST are quoted at around $915-935/mt CFR.
Russian producer ChTPZ is offering June production seamless pipes with 57-114 mm diameter of steel grade 10, 20 made to GOST to Turkey at about $920-940/mt CFR, October production seamless pipes with 146-219 mm diameter of steel grade 20 made to GOST at around $930-940/mt CFR, while June production seamless pipes with 273-426 mm diameter of steel grade 20 made to GOST at about $1,210-1,220/mt CFR. 3"-8" seamless pipes of grade B made to ASTM from ChTPZ are quoted at around $950-960/mt CFR.
Import offers of seamless pipes from Romania (ArcelorMittal), 3"-10" pipes of grade B made to ASTM A106 or API 5L, are being given to the Turkish market at around $1,280-1,290/mt CPT, while offers of 16" seamless pipes are at about $1,510-1,520/mt CPT.