Over the past week, demand in the local European welded pipe market has increased slightly, with buyers refraining from concluding bookings for delivery in December due to year-end considerations, though some of them have started to place orders for January deliveries. In the short term, prices of domestic welded pipes in Europe are expected to be stable and are not expected to record sharp declines even if hot rolled coil (HRC) prices continue to decline. This is because welded pipe supplies in the region will be limited as the quota for imported welded pipe has almost been exhausted, and also given the ongoing antidumping duties. Since prices are expected to move sideways up to the year-end, European welded pipe producers are not in a rush to conclude sales amid requests by buyers for discounts, while they are also not active in the market due to the approach of the year-end.
Prices in the local European welded pipe market have remained stable over the past week. As a result, a Bulgarian steel producer’s offers for ERW pipes as per EN 10219 are still at €580-585/meter ($661-667/meter) ex-works. The Bulgarian welded pipe producer’s quotations to Germany are at €615-620/meter ($701-705/meter) CPT, to Hungary are at €595-600/meter ($678-684/meter) CPT, to Austria are at €605-610/meter ($690-695/meter) CPT, to Romania are at €585-590/meter ($667-673/meter) CPT, and to Belgium and the Netherlands are at €635-645/meter ($724-735/meter) CPT, while its offers to the Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia and Slovakia are standing at €620-630/mt ($707-718/mt) CPT and its offers to Slovenia are at €625-635/mt ($713-724/mt) CPT.
According to media reports, the European Commission may revise the implementation of quotas on imported steel and instead of determining the volume of imported steel it may impose quotas on a quarterly-basis and depending on the exporter country. Some market sources state that this may make it more difficult to track the import tonnages. Furthermore, the time period during which imported material is held by customs may be shortened in order to avoid holding imported material at customs during the following quota period.
€1 = $1.14