Turkish traders are being quite cautious as regards seamless pipe purchases as demand from consuming industries remains slow in the country. At the same time, overseas suppliers are pursuing different pricing policies. Thus, the lower end of prices for Ukrainian seamless pipes has remained stable, but the upper end has decreased by $50-60/mt over the past month. Prices of Romanian seamless pipes have moved down by $50-90/mt over the same period. At the same time, import quotations of Chinese material have increased by $50-80/mt. Import quotations of Russian seamless pipes have remained unchanged at previous levels.
Market players think that seamless pipe suppliers may revise their offers upwards given higher substrate costs and anticipated better buying activity in spring.
Chinese suppliers are offering seamless pipes of 4"-20" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L to the Turkish market in the price range of $880-920/mt CFR. Offers of 12"-24" seamless pipes of X46 grade as per ASTM A106 from China are at around $950-1,050/mt CFR, while 2"-16" pipes of P265 grade made to EN 10216 are quoted at about $950-980/mt CFR.
March-April production pipes from Ukrainian producers of 2"-8" grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are being offered to the Turkish market at about $1,000-1,050/mt CFR, while pipes with 60.3-168.3 mm diameter of steel grade 10, 20 made to GOST are quoted at around $980-1,020/mt CFR.
Russian producer ChTPZ is offering March production seamless pipes, 2"-4" grade B made to ASTM, to Turkey at about $980-1,000/mt CFR, while 2"-6" seamless pipes of grade B as per API 5L from Russian producer TMK Group (Sinarsky Pipe Works) are quoted at around $1,400-1,420/mt CFR.
Import offers of seamless pipes from Romania (ArcelorMittal), 3"-10" pipes of grade B made to ASTM A106 or API 5L, are being given to the Turkish market at around $1,290-1,350/mt CPT, while offers of 18"-20" seamless pipes are at about $1,875-1,885/mt CPT.