Seamless pipe demand in Italy, although slowly improving after the holiday season, remains somewhat depressed amid the crisis in the country’s construction sector and the financial problems of most market players. Meanwhile, domestic and export quotations of Italian seamless pipes have gone up by about €20-50/mt ($27-68/mt) over the past month on the back of rising production costs and firmer demand from overseas buyers after the summer period. In the import segment, offers of Chinese and Ukrainian material have remained almost unchanged. Romanian and Czech producers have increased their offer prices €40-60/mt ($54-81/mt) over the period under review. Market players do not expect any serious changes in the Italian market for seamless pipes in the coming month as demand still remains slack.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size of grade B as per ASTM are at about €1,050-1,080/mt ($1,422-1,462/mt) ex-works, while offers of 8"-10" seamless pipes are at around €1,080-1,100/mt ($1,462-1,489/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-10" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,050-1,100/mt ($1,422-1,489/mt) FCA or €1,080-1,130/mt ($1,462-1,530/mt) FOB for November-December production.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €670-730/mt ($907-988/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
September production Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €750-770/mt ($1,015-1,042/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 €1,000-1,030/mt ($1,354-1,395mt) CPT. Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €980-1,000/mt ($1,327-1,354/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.354