Over the past week, buyers in the local European welded pipe market have continued to make purchases regularly, though they have avoided from stock bookings due to year end considerations. Meanwhile, due to the very dry weather conditions in Europe during the past few months, the water levels of the rivers in the region have decreased to quite low levels and this situation is still negatively impacting shipping. According to market sources, the capacity of railway transportation is almost full and the cost of deliveries made by truck has approximately increased by 10 percent since the end of the summer season.
Meanwhile, a Bulgarian steel producer’s offers to Europe for ERW pipes as per EN 10219 are still at €590-595/meter ($673-678/meter) CPT. The Bulgarian welded pipe producer’s quotations to Germany are at €625-630/meter ($713-718/meter) CPT, to Hungary are at €605-610/meter ($690-695/meter) CPT, to Austria are at €615-620/meter ($701-707/meter) CPT, to Romania are at €595-600/meter ($678-684/meter) CPT, and to Belgium and the Netherlands are at €645-655/meter ($761-747/meter) CPT, while its offers to the Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia and Slovakia are standing at €630-640/mt ($718-730/mt) CPT and its offers to Slovenia are at €635-645/mt ($724-735/mt) CPT.
According to the European Commission’s (EC) import quota rates, 56.7 percent and 75 percent of the quotas for import welded pipe and hollow profiles have been filled, respectively.