The Italian seamless pipe market is still characterized by quiet activity. Local customers continue to show little buying interest amid slack demand from consuming industries, while demand from foreign buyers is a little stronger, in particular, from America and the Middle East. Italian suppliers have maintained their official prices for standard seamless pipes unchanged over the past month, but are ready to give discounts for firm orders. Prices of Ukrainian material have decreased by €20-30/mt ($27-41/mt) over the past month. At the same time, import offers of Chinese, Romanian and Czech material have stayed almost unchanged for Italian buyers over the same period.
Demand for standard seamless pipes in Europe is expected to remain slack amid financing difficulties in consuming industries and the weak economic recovery in the region. Facing weak demand, seamless pipe suppliers in Italy will likely be unable to implement price increases within the coming month.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 8"-10" size as per ASTM are at about €1,100-1,150/mt ($1,485-1,553/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 6"-10" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,100-1,150/mt ($1,485-1,553/mt) FCA or €1,130-1,180/mt ($1,526-1,593/mt) FOB for April production.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €710-840/mt ($959-1,134/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
February-March production Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST or ASTM are offered to the Italian market at around €750-820/mt ($1,013-1,107/mt) CPT (12.3-13.8 percent AD duty not included).
Prices for Romanian origin seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Roman) of 3"-12" grade B made to ASTM or as per EN are at about €1,010-1,050/mt ($1,364-1,418/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €990-1,000/mt ($1,337-1,350/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.35