Demand for seamless pipes in Italy has continued to weaken on the back of poor political and economic sentiment and subdued end-use sectors. Meanwhile, domestic and export quotations of Italian seamless pipes have remained stable over the past month due to high cost of raw materials and semis. In the import segment, offers of Chinese material have declined by €10-20/mt ($8-23/mt), while prices of Ukrainian pipes have gone down by €20-40/mt ($22-49/mt) on muted trading. Romanian and Czech producers have left their offer prices unchanged over the period under review. Market players predict that the market will remain static in the coming month, so local suppliers will probably hold prices steady with a possible slight decline driven by low demand and toughened competition from imports.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size of grade B as per ASTM are at about €1,050-1,080/mt ($1,422-1,462/mt) ex-works, while offers of 8"-10" seamless pipes are at around €1,080-1,100/mt ($1,462-1,489/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-10" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,050-1,100/mt ($1,422-1,489/mt) FCA or €1,080-1,130/mt ($1,462-1,530/mt) FOB for December production.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €650-720/mt ($884-980/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
October production Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €710-750/mt ($966-1,020/mt) CPT (12.3-13.8 percent AD duty not included).
Prices for Romanian origin seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Roman) of 3"-10" grade B made to ASTM or as per EN are at about €1,000-1,030/mt ($1,360-1,401/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €980-1,000/mt ($1,333-1,360/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.36