The Spanish seamless pipe market has remained on a relatively stable trend over the past month. Although business activity in the Spanish market has slowed down owing to the summer holidays and maintenance shutdowns in August, Spanish seamless pipe suppliers have preferred to keep their domestic and export prices stable over the past month. In the import segment, suppliers are pursuing different policies. Chinese suppliers have had to cut offer prices by €10-15/mt over the period under review, while offers of Ukrainian material have moved up by €20-30/mt amid rising production costs. Market players believe that in the September-October period domestic offers of seamless pipes will start to rise owing to higher domestic scrap costs. Also, end-user demand for seamless pipes from key user sectors in Spain and other EU countries may see a gradual revival.
Current Spanish domestic prices for 2"-4" hot-formed seamless pipes, grade B made to ASTM A106, are at around €920-950/mt ($1,214-1,254/mt) ex-works.
Current export prices of Spanish seamless pipes, 2"-4" grade B according to ASTM A106, are varying at around €950-980/mt ($1,254-1,294/mt) FOB.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L, are at about €600-640/mt ($792-845/mt) CFR Spain, exclusive of antidumping duties (in the range of 17.7-39.2 percent depending on the producer).
Offers of Ukrainian seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B according to API 5L, are being given to Spain at €800-820/mt ($1,056-1,082/mt) CPT. Prices are shown exclusive of 13.8 percent antidumping duty.
Quotations of Italian seamless pipes, 8"-10" grade B made to ASTM A106, to Spain are at €1,050-1,100/mt ($1,386-1,452/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.32