During the week ending August 16, average Chinese steel pipe export offer prices have seen various trends. At present, export offers for welded pipes given by Chinese suppliers are in the range of $530-550/mt FOB, remaining stable compared to August 9, while export offers for API 5L seamless pipes given by Chinese suppliers are at $550-560/mt FOB, for October shipment, moving down by $10/mt compared to August 9.
Product name |
Quality |
Spec. |
Price ($/mt) FOB |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
API 5L seamless pipe |
Gr.B |
2’’-6’’ Std |
555 |
-10 |
Seamless pipe, casing (hot rolled forming) |
J55 |
3’’-8’’ Std |
555 |
-10 |
Seamless pipe, tubing (cold drawn forming) |
ST37 |
< 3’’ Std |
640 |
0 |
Welded pipes |
Gr.B |
2’’-6’’ Std |
540 |
0 |
During the given week, welded pipe prices in the Chinese domestic market have remained stable, while seamless piping and casing pipes have indicated a decline of $10/mt compared to last week. Though there has been information that China will issue control measures to curb crude steel output, most market players think that the impact is limited at the current stage. The economic data issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that the economy was not as good as expected. On August 15, the PBOC announced a cut in MLF rates by 15 basis points to 2.5 percent, while it cut the seven-day reverse repo operation rate by 10 basis points to 1.8 percent, which will exert a positive impact on market sentiments. It is expected that steel pipe prices in the Chinese domestic market may edge up in the coming week.
As of August 16, HRC futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,926/mt ($545/mt), decreasing by RMB 38/mt ($5.3/mt) or down by 0.96 percent since August 9.
$1 = RMB 7.1986
