Having increased two weeks ago, higher Bulgarian welded pipe prices have gained acceptance from European buyers in the current week. Also, the order book of a Bulgarian welded pipe producer is observed to be nearly full, while the mill’s export offers for ERW pipes as per EN 10219 are still at €590-630/mt ($690-737/mt) CPT. Although orders for August output has been received by the mill in question, it is planning maintenance works in August and so the production capacity utilization rate of the producer will fall by approximately 50 percent. In this context, the Bulgarian welded pipe producer’s quotations for the product in question to Hungary and Poland are at €600-610/mt ($702-714/mt) CPT, with other offers to the Czech Republic and Austria being at €610-620/mt ($714-725/mt) CPT, offers to Germany and Romania are at €620-630/mt ($725-737/mt) CPT and €590-600/mt ($690-702/mt) CPT respectively.
Market participants in the European welded pipe market were observed to be awaiting the result of the European Union's safeguard investigation last week, and so trading activity in the market was sluggish. The European Union voted Thursday, July 5, in favor of provisional measures against steel imports within the scope of the safeguard investigation launched in response to the Section 232 tariffs in the US. The measures in question are expected to come into effect in mid-July after the approval of the European Commission (EC), while the quota will be based on import volumes over recent years and a 25 percent tariff will be applied on the volumes exceeding that amount.
European welded pipe producers predict a significant fall in Europe’s welded pipe imports, which had increased in the first half of 2018 as compared to previous years. As a result, countries that supply welded pipe to the EU may have already reached or exceeded the quota to be determined for 2018 by the EU. In the coming period, increases both in bookings received by European welded pipe mills and in their prices are considered to be possible. After the details of the EU’s final decision are announced, the situation in the European welded pipe market will be clearer.
€1 = $1.17