Bulgaria's market for welded pipes has not experienced any improvement over the past two weeks. Confidence in the domestic market is still low and market sources continue to concentrate their business mainly in the export market. Meanwhile, demand from European customers has fallen off due to the economic downturn in Europe and growing uncertainty among buyers. Both domestic and export offers of welded pipes from Bulgarian producers have stayed at previous levels.
Market insiders think that a small recovery is possible before Christmas due to restocking by buyers, but there are no signs of price increases yet as the overall European economic situation remains depressed.
Current offers of locally produced welded pipes and hollow sections of 2-5 mm wall thickness made from S235JR grade hot rolled coil (HRC) according to EN 10219 are being given to the Bulgarian domestic market at around €560-565/mt ($717-723/mt) ex-works, exclusive of 20 percent VAT and on theoretical weight basis.
Export quotations of Bulgarian ERW pipes and hollow sections of 2-5 mm wall thickness made from S235JR grade HRC as per EN 10219 are at the level of €530-540/mt ($678-691/mt) ex-works on theoretical weight basis for November-December production for small orders, and at €500-520/mt ($640-666/mt) ex-works for lots of over 1,000 mt. Offers of similar Bulgarian pipes with wall thickness of 1.5 mm made from HRC as per EN 10219 are at around €530-570/mt ($678-730/mt) ex-works for November-December rolling. Export quotations of Bulgarian water and gas pipes according to EN 10255 are at €520-560/mt ($666-717/mt) ex-works.
€1 = $1.28