As expected, during the past two weeks Turkish producers were forced to decrease offer prices of welded pipes by around $20-40/mt due to weak buyer activity in the international and domestic markets. By cutting their prices the Turkish producers have been trying to increase their sales volume before the summer holidays in Europe and before Ramadan in the Middle East countries. However, in August Turkish producers hope to keep the July price level. Yet market insiders are very skeptical about this. They think the producers will not be able to sell material at high prices during August, which is a dead month. The price trend is expected to fluctuate in the coming weeks as it adapts to the demand level and the cost of flat products.
At the same time the main players in the Turkish flats market fear that the upward price trend in this market may switch to a downtrend as stocking activity for flat products has been completed and as demand from end-users remains weak. At present, HR coils of Russian origin are offered to the Turkish market at around $540-560/mt C&F while Ukrainian origin HR coils are offered at $490-500/mt C&F.
Export prices of Turkish ERW pipes of 2-6 mm wall thickness made from HRC are in the range $580-600/mt FOB, while the prices of square and rectangular hollow sections of 2-6 mm wall thickness made to ASTM A500 are at $570-590/mt FOB. Export offers of ERW pipes of 1.5 mm wall thickness made from CRC are at the level of $660-680/mt FOB, with hollow sections at $650-670/mt FOB.
Domestic market quotations of ERW pipes of 2-6 mm wall thickness made from HRC are at the level $630-670/mt ex-works, while ERW pipes of 1.5 mm wall thickness made from CRC are at the range of $770-800/mt ex-works. Domestic prices of round, square and rectangular hollow sections grade A of 2-4 mm wall thickness made to ASTM A500 from HRC are at about $620-650/mt ex-works, while prices of hollow sections of 1.5 mm wall thickness made from CRC are at about $750-780/mt ex-works.