Trade in Turkey's seamless pipe market is slow amid weak demand from end-users, causing Turkish importers to hesitate to book material. In particular, demand for seamless pipes from Turkey's automotive sector is still sluggish. Slack demand for seamless pipes is also attributed to currency fluctuations and the restriction of consumer credit growth by the Turkish central bank. Over the past month, offers of Chinese seamless pipes to Turkey have decreased by around $65-70/mt. Import quotations of Ukrainian and Russian seamless pipes have stayed unchanged over the same period. Offers of Romanian seamless pipes have gone down by $80-100/mt. However, CIS producers are expected to release higher offers in February on the back of expected better demand from Turkish customers in spring.
Chinese suppliers are offering seamless pipes of 2"-10" grade B made to ASTM to the Turkish market in the price range of $920-980/mt CFR.
February production pipes from Ukrainian producer Interpipe with diameter of 50-159 mm as per GOST or ASTM are being offered to the Turkish market at about $1,000-1,020/mt CFR, while offers of pipes with diameter up to 377 mm are at $1,070-1,090/mt CFR.
Quotations of Russian seamless pipes from Volzhsky PP (TMK Group) with diameter up to 219.1 mm made to GOST or ASTM are being given to the Turkish market at about $1,060-1,065/mt CFR for February production. However, TMK is ready to grant a $70-80/mt discount for firm orders. Russian producer ChTPZ is offering January-February production seamless pipes with diameter up to 219 mm made to GOST at about $1,030-1,055/mt CFR.
Import offers of seamless pipes from Romania (ArcelorMittal), 8"-12" of grade B made to ASTM, are being given to the Turkish market at $1,280-1,320/mt CPT.
6"-8" seamless pipes from Italian producer Tenaris Dalmine are quoted to Turkish customers at $1,890-2,040/mt CPT, while 16" pipes are at around $2,465-2,490/mt CPT.