The Iranian seamless pipe market is experiencing a stagnant period due to low consumer activity amid political and economic instability in the country. However, prices of locally produced seamless pipes have not changed over the past month amid slack demand for import materials due to international sanctions. At the same time, import offers of Ukrainian and Russian material have gone down by around $35-50/mt, while quotations of Chinese seamless pipes have declined by $50/mt. Meanwhile, most Iranian customers prefer to wait for prices to decline further.
The outlook for the market in the coming period is still unclear, though some improvement may be seen after the presidential elections in the coming month.
Current domestic prices of Iranian production seamless pipes of 1"-4" grade B made to API 5L are at $1,100-1,150/mt ex-works.
Import offers of Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L, are being given to the local Iranian market at $800-850/mt CFR Bandar Abbas, while offers of 4 1/2"-13 3/8" casing of grade J55 as per API 5CT are coming to the Iranian market at around $950-1,000/mt CFR.
Quotations of Ukrainian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size grade B as per ASTM A106 are at about $1,050-1,100/mt CFR Bandar Abbas for May production, while 8"-10" pipes are at around $1,080-1,130/mt CFR.
Russian pipes of 2"-6" grade B as per ASTM A106 or GOST are being offered to northern Iranian ports at $1,000-1,050/mt CFR.