Buying activity in the Italian seamless pipe market has remained very quiet amid lackluster demand from end-users, while traders' stocks are at sufficient levels and this has also contributed to the slack market activity. Prices of Italian seamless pipes have mostly remained unchanged in euro terms over the past month, while in dollar terms prices have increased by $18-19/mt. In the import segment, offers of Chinese material have moved down by €20/mt ($27/mt). Prices of Ukrainian pipes have increased by around €10/mt ($14/mt) over the period in question, while quotations of Romanian and Czech material have remained in the previous range. The future prospects for the market are a little brighter as end-user demand is expected to improve slowly and export demand from markets in the Middle East, where Europe is one of the main suppliers, looks set to increase too.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size of grade B as per ASTM are at about €950-1,040/mt ($1,303-1,427/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-4" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €970-1,050/mt ($1,331-1,441/mt) FCA or €1,000-1,080/mt ($1,372-1,482/mt) FOB. Export offers of 8"-10" seamless pipes are at about €1,140-1,160/mt ($1,564-1,592/mt) FOB.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €640-700/mt ($878-960/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
March production Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €720-740/mt ($988-1,015/mt) CPT (12.3-13.8 percent AD duty not included).
Prices for Romanian origin seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Roman) of 3"-10" grade B made to ASTM or as per EN are at about €970-1,000/mt ($1,331-1,372/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €940-980/mt ($1,290-1,345/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.372