Buying activity in the Turkish seamless pipe market has continued to decline due to the onset of weaker seasonal demand. Nevertheless, foreign seamless pipe suppliers have continued to follow an upward trend in their prices due to rising raw material costs. However, support from end-users remains soft due to price volatility, while traders are now minimizing their end-of-year stocks. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in October this year Turkey imported 9,900 metric tons of seamless pipes, indicating a decrease of 26.4 percent from the September level and down 31.2 percent year on year. Imports of seamless pipes to Turkey for the first 10 months of 2010 reached 167,100 metric tons, up 52 percent on the corresponding period of last year.
Over the past month quotations of Chinese seamless pipes have increased by 10-20/mt. Offers of Russian seamless pipes from TMK have increased by $30-50/mt over the period under review. Import quotations of Ukrainian seamless pipes have gone up by $35-40/mt during the past month. Quotations for seamless pipes from Romanian suppliers have increased by $10/mt over the same period. Market insiders forecast that seamless pipe prices may remain firm in the first quarter of 2011 on the back of higher feedstock prices and expected better demand.
Current quotations for Chinese seamless pipes 2"-12" grade B made to ASTM A106 are in the range of $990-1,100/mt C&F Turkey's Marmara Sea ports.
January-February production pipes from Ukrainian producer Interpipe with diameter of 48.3-323 mm made of steel grade 10, 20 according to GOST 8731/8732 or pipes of steel grade B as per ASTM A106 are being offered to the Turkish market at about $1,040-1,065/mt C&F.
Seamless pipes of Volzhsky Pipe (TMK, Russia) with 57-219 mm diameter made from steel grade 10, 20 to GOST 8731/8732 are at $960-1,000/mt C&F, while prices for 6"-16" pipes made from grade B to ASTM A106 are at $980-1,020/mt C&F with delivery at the end of March.
Quotations of seamless pipes from Uraltrubostal (Russia) with 33.7-219.1 mm diameter made to GOST 8731/8732 or pipes of steel grade B as per ASTM A106 are being given to the Turkish market at about $960-990/mt C&F.
Seamless pipes from the Czech Republic (ArcelorMittal Ostrava) 2"-10" B made to ASTM A106/API 5L are being given to the Turkish market at around $1,295-1,320/mt CPT, while ½"-1 ½" pipes are at $1,360-1,485/mt CPT for February production.
Import offers of seamless pipes from Romania (ArcelorMittal) 3"-6" made to ASTM A106 are being given to the local market of Turkey at $1,230-1,240/mt CPT. Offers of 6"-8" seamless steel pipes of St37 grade as per DIN 1629 from ArcelorMittal Roman are at $1,230-1,260/mt CPT.