As a result of the downturn in the global market and low buying activity, Ukrainian seamless pipe exporters have had to cut export prices by $90-130/mt for small sizes and by $130-160/mt for bigger sizes compared with the prices for June production - in order to maintain sales at an acceptable level. Offer prices of Russian seamless pipes for June production were already competitive, so Russian pipe manufacturers did not decrease them, but on the contrary even increased them by $20-45/mt in some cases. Offers of Russian round billet to Ukrainian producers of seamless pipes have risen by $10-20/t, but this is largely due to strengthening of the Russian ruble against the US dollar. For now, the prospects are not great for a near-term recovery of the international market, due to the coming holidays in Europe, the hot season in the Middle East countries, and difficulties related to finance. Thus, sluggishness in demand from foreign consumers will make it more difficult for ex-CIS seamless pipe export quotations to register an increase.
In particular, prices for July production of round billet from OEMK (Russia) to the Ukrainian pipe makers are at about $380/mt DAF, against $360-370/mt DAF a month ago. Offers of round billet (July production) from Ukraine's Dneprovsky (Dzerzhinsky) to Ukrainian mills are being given at $350-370/mt ex-works against $350-360/mt ex-works in June.
Dzerzhinsky (DMCD) is going to cut its volume of exports due to a reduction of orders from foreign customers. They plan to ship not more than 1,000-2,000 mt of round billets in June, half last month's figure. Almost the entire volume of the producer's pipe billet will be delivered to Ukrainian consumers.
Export prices for Interpipe's July production of 2"-6" seamless pipes grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L or GOST 8731/8732 are about $760-770/mt FOB, 8"-14" pipes with thin wall thickness are priced at $790-820/mt FOB, with large wall thicknesses at $870-900/mt FOB.
Export offers of seamless pipes with diameter of 57-168 mm made from steel grade 10, 20 according to GOST 8731/8732 (July production) from Dnipropetrovsk Tube Works are at $720-760/mt FOB.
Export prices of July production seamless pipes of 10, 20 steel grade made to GOST 8731/8732 by Russia's TMK Group are at $750-915/mt FOB Novorossiysk, depending on diameter and producer. In particular, seamless hot-formed pipes with diameter of 73-168 mm and of 10, 20 steel grade made to GOST from Sinarsky PP, and with 219-325 mm diameter from Seversky PP, are offered for export at on average $900-915/mt FOB. Export prices for seamless hot-formed pipes with diameter up to 425 mm from Volzhsky PP and Taganrog PP are at about $750/mt FOB.
Uraltrubostal's export offers for July production seamless hot-formed pipes with diameter of 33.7-219.1 mm made to GOST are standing at about $690-720/mt FOB. Prices for similar pipes made to ASTM/API are in the range $730-750/mt FOB.