Wait-and-see mood prevails in quiet Chinese welded pipe market

The Chinese welded pipe market has remained quiet due to a lack of demand from both local and foreign buyers, while producers have mostly kept their prices unchanged over the past two weeks, with slight downticks observed in quotations from some traders. Market participants are in general maintaining a wait-and-see stance. Welded pipe producers in China think that any price growth is almost impossible in the coming short-term period as demand is not expected to improve significantly. Accordingly, market players expect quotations of welded pipes from China producers will likely remain stable in the coming period.
 
Current offers of locally produced 2"-6" welded pipes of grade B as per ASTM A53 are being given to the Chinese domestic market at an average of RMB 4,000-4,150/mt ($644-668/mt) ex-works. These local market welded pipe prices include 17 percent VAT. Traders in Shanghai are offering Q215-Q235 welded pipes made to GB/T3091 at around RMB 3,500-3,650/mt ($564-588/mt) ex-warehouse, while stockists in the cities of Tianjin and Beijing are offering similar pipes at RMB 3,310-3,370/mt ($533-543/mt) ex-warehouse.
 
Current export prices of welded pipes from large Chinese mills, 2"-10" grade B according to ASTM A53, are at around $620-650/mt FOB on actual weight basis.
 
$1 = RMB 6.21