Purchasing activity in the Italian market for seamless pipes remains very slow because of the August holiday period. Italian suppliers have kept their domestic and export seamless pipe quotations in euro terms within a stable price range over the past month, while prices in US dollar terms have dropped by $20/mt given the weaker euro. Offers of Chinese materials have declined by around €5-20/mt ($7-27/mt) over the past month, while import prices of seamless pipes from Ukraine have increased by €20-30/mt ($27-40/mt). Quotations of Romanian and Czech seamless pipes have remained unchanged over the same period. It is expected that local seamless pipe producers will push for price increases after the summer holiday season on the back of higher domestic scrap costs and an anticipated boost from post-holiday restocking.
Current domestic prices for Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" size as per ASTM or EN are at about €950-980/mt ($1,263-1,303/mt) ex-works.
Export quotations of Italian seamless pipes of 2"-6" Sch 40 of grade B as per ASTM A106 are at around €980-1,000/mt ($1,303-1,330/mt) FOB.
Prices for Chinese seamless pipes, 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM, are at about €570-625/mt ($758-831/mt) CFR Italy. Prices are exclusive of antidumping (AD) duties of 17.7-39.2 percent.
Ukrainian 2"-6" seamless pipes as per GOST, ASTM or EN are offered to the Italian market at around €770-780/mt ($1,024-1,037/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 €950-980/mt ($1,263-1,303/mt) CPT.
Czech origin 3"-10" seamless steel tubes (ArcelorMittal Ostrava), as per ASTM, are quoted for Italian consumers at around €920-960/mt ($1,223-1,276/mt) CPT.
€1 = $1.33