Welded pipe producers and traders in Iran have kept their domestic prices almost unchanged over the past month with no real sign of a recovery in demand emerging. As the Iranian New Year (starts March 21) is approaching, market players are seeing low margins and tight liquidity. Market players believe an improvement in the market is unlikely in the coming short-term period due to soft demand and the approach of the Iranian New Year holiday.
Iranian producers' current domestic prices for 6"-14" welded pipes with 2 mm wall thickness of grade B made to ASTM/API are at $740-800/mt (IRR 20,550-22,216/mt) ex-works. Prices are exclusive of eight percent VAT.
Local stockists' prices for welded pipes of ½"-3" size from Iranian producers are at about $800-835/mt ex-warehouse, compared to $800-840/mt ex-warehouse one month ago. Offers of 20 x 20 mm - 100 x 100 mm hollow sections ex-warehouse Tehran are on average at $690-700/mt ex-warehouse, unchanged compared to one month ago.
Chinese welded pipes, 2"-8" grade B made to ASTM A53/API 5L, are currently being offered to the Iranian market at $520-550/mt CFR, $50/mt lower than one month ago.
$1 = IRR 27.77