The welded pipe market in China is depressed by limited demand from end-users and the overall bad sales performance. Leading Chinese seamless pipe mills have adopted a cautious stance and some of them have lowered their domestic prices slightly. Chinese mills' prices for welded pipes have decreased by around RMB 50-100/mt ($8-16/mt) over the past three weeks, while traders have cut their offers by around RMB 10-70/mt ($2-11/mt) during the same period. Export offers of welded pipes from China have declined by a maximum of $10/mt over the period under review against the backdrop of weak demand in the off-season. Market insiders believe the market will be sluggish in the short term since demand from downstream industries is soft. However, prices of welded pipes in China are unlikely to decline significantly because of the higher prices of upstream materials such as steel billet and iron ore.
Current offers of locally produced 2"-6" welded pipes of grade B as per ASTM A53 are being given to the Chinese domestic market at an average of RMB 3,850-4,000/mt ($620-644/mt) ex-works, while domestic offers of hollow sections and welded pipes of grade Q215-195 are at the level of RMB 3,200-3,600/mt ($515-580/mt) ex-works. These local market welded pipe prices include 17 percent VAT. Traders in Shanghai are offering Q215-Q235 welded pipes made to GB/T3091 at around RMB 3,350-3,480/mt ($539-560/mt) ex-warehouse, while stockists in the cities of Tianjin and Beijing are offering similar pipes at RMB 3,270-3,340/mt ($527-538/mt) ex-warehouse.
Current export prices of welded pipes from large Chinese mills, 2"-10" grade B according to ASTM A53, are at around $590-620/mt FOB on actual weight basis.
$1 = RMB 6.21