The Italian seamless pipe market has remained dormant over the past month given the lackluster market sentiments. The situation in the key seamless pipe user sectors like machine building, construction and commercial vehicles remains poor. Greater difficulties as regards financial problems, concerns about a second surge of the crisis, a deep downturn in construction and the halt of the recovery in the European automotive industry have led to negative expectations among market participants. It is expected that the seamless pipe market in Italy will likely remain in suspense until market conditions become clear after the summer slowdown. However, market insiders are not quite sure the situation is going to improve noticeably when the autumn comes.
In the above context, domestic and export quotations of Italian seamless pipes have decreased by €90-100/mt during the past month. Over the same period offers of Chinese material have moved down by a maximum of €20/mt. Prices of Ukrainian seamless pipes for Italy have declined by €30-50/mt, while import quotations of seamless pipes from Romania have decreased by €35-40/mt.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are at about €970-1,000/mt ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are at €1,000-1,020/mt FOB, excluding the trader's margin.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L are at about €780-830/mt C&F Italy, exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties (in the range of 17.7-39.2 percent depending on the producer).
July production Ukrainian 2"-14" seamless pipes ex-Interpipe grade B as per ASTM A106 are offered to the Italian market at around €750-800/mt DDU (25.1 percent AD duty is not included in this price range).
Prices for Romanian origin seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Romania) 3"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106 are at about €1,000-1,030/mt CPT.