In July Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, pumped 8.02 million barrels of crude oil a day, the same as in the previous month. The country may cut the official price of its light crude oil for September sales. Current prices are not fully supported by supply-and-demand fundamentals in the market, with actual demand for oil still quite weak. In this context, demand for seamless pipes in Saudi Arabia remains sluggish. The main European producers, Tenaris and V&M, as well as the big Japanese producer Sumitomo, have had to decrease their offer prices for the Saudi Arabian market by $150-200/mt over the past month. At the same time, other suppliers have been forced to increase seamless pipe quotations due to rising production costs. Thus, prices for Chinese seamless pipes have increased by $20-60/mt, offer prices from Ukraine have risen by a maximum of $100/mt, with offers from Russia up by $100-110/mt. Meanwhile, Romanian and South African suppliers have kept their offer prices for seamless pipes at the previous levels. SteelOrbis thinks that demand for oil and gas seamless pipes in Saudi Arabia will likely remain slow during August-September.
Import offers of Chinese seamless pipes 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L are being given to the Saudi Arabian market at $780-800/mt C&F.
Offers of Ukrainian seamless pipes (Interpipe) 2"-6" grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are being given to the market in Saudi Arabia at on average $840-900/mt C&F, with 10"-12" pipes at $950-1,000/mt C&F. However, these are official prices and, as market players have informed SteelOrbis, it is in fact possible to get small sizes of Ukrainian seamless pipes at around $850/mt C&F.
Russian offers from TMK subsidiary Volzhsky Pipe Plant are in a range of $900-950/mt C&F for material under 8" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L, while 10"-14" seamless pipes can be heard at a maximum of $1,200/mt C&F.
Romanian and South African seamless pipes (ArcelorMittal) 2"-12" grade B made to API 5L are quoted at around $1,075-1,100/mt C&F.
Quotations of seamless pipes from Italy and Argentina (Tenaris), France and Germany (V&M), and from Japan (Sumitomo) for 2"-10" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L are at about $1,300-1,350/mt C&F, with offers of 12"-14"pipes at $1,500-1,600/mt C&F.