Buying activity has slackened greatly in the Turkish market for seamless pipes during Ramadan. Over the past month, offers of Chinese and Romanian seamless pipes to Turkey have stayed unchanged. Import quotations of seamless pipes produced by Ukraine's Interpipe have remained at previous levels, while Duferco's pipes have lost around $15/mt. Meanwhile, offers of Russian seamless pipes from TMK have increased by $10-35/mt over the period under review, while Russia's Uraltrubostal has not changed its offers for a while. Market players believe sales will improve in September following the conclusion of the end-of-Ramadan holiday, and most seamless pipe suppliers may lift their quotations. However, the market is cautious as the Turkish lira is losing value against the US dollar.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in June this year Turkey imported 14,443 metric tons of seamless pipes, indicating a decrease of 22.3 percent from the May level and down 8.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, Turkey's imports of seamless pipes in the first six months of this year reached 116,259 metric tons, up 19.8 percent on the corresponding period of last year.
Current quotations for Chinese seamless pipes of 2"-10" grade B made to ASTM A106/ASTM A53 are in the range of $990-1,120/mt CFR Turkey's Marmara Sea ports, while 2"-10" pipes as per ASTM A106/ASTM A53/API 5L are at $1,050-1,150/mt CFR. Import offers of Chinese 28" pipes S275J2H grade made to EN 10210 are at $1,300-1,350/mt CFR.
August-September production pipes from Ukrainian producer Interpipe with diameter of 48.3-355 mm made of steel grade 10, 20 according to GOST 8731/8732 are being offered to the Turkish market at about $1,120-1,160/mt CFR, while quotations of seamless pipes made to ASTM A106 are at $1,150-1,200/mt CFR.
Offer prices ex-Ukraine from Duferco partner Dnepropetrovsk Tube Plant of 42-168 mm seamless pipes as per GOST 8731/8732 are at around $1,110-1,130/mt CFR for August production.
Quotations of Russian seamless pipes from TMK (Volzhsky PP and Tagmet) with diameter up to 219.1 mm made to GOST 8731/8732 are being given to the Turkish market at about $1,085-1,100/mt CFR for August-September production.
Russian producers Uraltrubostal (Pervouralsky Novotrubny Works) are offering August-September production seamless hot-formed pipes with diameter up to 219 mm made to GOST 8731/8732 at about $1,130-1,190/mt CFR.
Import offers of seamless pipes from Romania (ArcelorMittal), 3"-14" of grade B made to ASTM A106, are being given to the local market of Turkey at $1,630-1,700/mt CPT.
SteelOrbis has learned that German 4" Sch 40 seamless pipes grade B made to API 5L are being offered to Turkey at $2,100/mt CFR.