The less than brilliant period in the Italian welded tubes market continues as we approach the August holidays, with prices slightly down and apparent demand weak - this is the picture gathered from a survey of those involved in the market.
Apparent demand is down, real demand is not great, the destocking process for warehouses is continuing, and traders are vigilantly playing a waiting game; these are the causes of the current situation in the Italian welded tubes market where prices have been on a slow but continuous decline for a few weeks now.
After three and a half months of working at full steam (January-April), the tubes sector got itself into difficulty due to the high levels of inventory held by the traders, which sparked off a destocking phase in the market. This process has not yet come to an end, and distributors are limiting themselves to purchasing the minimum quantities they require in order to fill any gaps in their stock. With regard to real demand, the situation does not appear too rosy, taking into account the seasonal slowdown in orders typical of the pre-holiday period. These two causes, added to the strong levels of competition between producers, have contributed to a postponement of quotations in the most recent period.
Looking forward to the post-holiday return, the market players who were interviewed stated that they are expecting demand from stockists to increase by the end of September. As far as quotations are concerned, the market still seems inert, though tube makers have stressed that the price gap between their raw material (coils) and their finished product (welded tubes) has already been considerably reduced and is not likely to see any further narrowing.