Business activity remains slack for Italian seamless pipes amid Ramadan in Muslim countries and the approach of the holiday season in Europe. Domestic and export quotations of Italian seamless pipes have remained unchanged over the past month. In the import segment, only offers of Ukrainian material have moved up by €20-30/mt ($26,2-39,3/mt) mainly because of exchange rate fluctuations, while Chinese suppliers have increased their prices by a maximum of €10/mt ($13,1/mt) Romanian and Czech producers have left their offer prices unchanged. In general, market players expect no positive changes during the summer, as there are no factors likely to boost seamless pipe demand considering the lull in the consuming segment. However, market insiders think seamless pipe suppliers may attempt to push through an increase on the back of the recent revival in raw material prices. Demand for standard seamless pipes is not likely to increase before September, when end-user demand usually improves.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size of grade B as per ASTM are at about €1,000-1,030/mt ($1,314-1,353/mt) ex-works, while offers of 8"-10" seamless pipes are at around €1,050-1,080/mt ($1,379-1,419/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-10" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €1,000-1,080/mt ($1,314-1,419/mt) FCA or €1,030-1,110/mt ($1,353-1,458/mt) FOB for September-October production.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €650-700/mt ($854-920/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
August production Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €750-780/mt ($985-1,025/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 €960-970/mt ($1,261-1,274/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €940-950/mt ($1,235-1,248/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.31