The price uptrend in the Turkish welded pipe market has continued in the third week of March, supported by higher hot rolled coil (HRC) prices. Local pipe offers have increased by another $20/mt to $870-900/mt ex-works and to $860-880/mt FOB in the export market, as compared to last week. However, demand for pipes has seen a decline over the same period in both the domestic and overseas markets, taking into account that buyers prefer to wait for a clearer picture as there is a lot of uncertainty. Stocks are reportedly at sufficient levels since customers mainly made their purchases prior to the previous price increase in the pipe market.
"The market outlook is not clear, scrap prices are fluctuating and, despite the expectations, we cannot see any relaxation of the Covid-19 measures in the EU. Buyers have already finished their restocking and they just want to observe the market situation. Also, we are not in a hurry to update our prices because many producers have only a limited allocation for May production and nobody needs to sell production urgently," a producer told SteelOrbis.
** Prices are given for ERW pipes and hollow sections with 2-4 mm wall thickness made from HRC of S235 grade as per EN 10219, on theoretical weight basis.