During the week ending January 20, average Chinese steel pipe export offer prices have moved sideways. At present, export offers for welded pipe given by Chinese suppliers are in the range of $630-670/mt FOB, while export offers for API 5L seamless pipe given by Chinese suppliers are at $670-760/mt FOB, April shipment, moving sideways week on week.
Product name |
Quality |
Spec. |
Price ($/mt) FOB |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
API 5L seamless pipe |
Gr.B |
2’’-6’’ Std |
715 |
0 |
Seamless pipe, casing (hot rolled forming) |
J55 |
3’’-8’’ Std |
770 |
0 |
Seamless pipe, tubing (cold drawn forming) |
ST37 |
< 3’’ Std |
1015 |
0 |
Welded pipes |
Gr.B |
2’’-6’’ Std |
650 |
0 |
During the given week, traders started to leave the market ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday amid slackening demand against the backdrop of cold weather. Meanwhile, stock replenishments have not been observed yet, and this has weakened the support for steel pipe prices. However, as the holiday is approaching, buyers will gradually build up stocks, and so it is thought steel pipe prices in the Chinese domestic market will likely move sideways in the coming week.
Rebar futures prices at Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) stand at RMB 4,310/mt ($665/mt) on January 20, up RMB 17/mt ($2.6/mt) or 0.4 percent from January 13.
$1 = RMB 6.4836
