The seamless pipe market in Iran is still depressed, while the government continues to exert strict control over the market. Import offers of seamless pipes have continued to rise sharply due to increasing raw material costs. At the same time, buying activity is very low in the Iranian seamless pipe market, and market players prefer to follow a wait-and-see policy until after the Iranian New Year holiday. Over the past month, quotations of Chinese seamless pipes have increased by a maximum of $100/mt. Import offers of Ukrainian seamless pipes have moved up by $120-150/mt, while prices for seamless pipes from Russian producers have surged by $225-230/mt over the period under review. Market participants believe that, due to higher import quotations, the Iranian seamless pipe market should see some improvements in the coming months, but not before the Iranian New Year (starts March 21).
Local stockists' prices for domestic production seamless pipes of 1"-3" size are at about $1,430-1,910/mt ex-warehouse, compared with $1,475-2,180/mt ex-warehouse one month ago.
Import offers of Chinese seamless pipes 2"-6" grade B made to ASTM A106/API 5L are being given to the local Iranian market at $1,000-1,150/mt C&F Bandar Abbas, compared with $1,000-1,050/mt C&F four weeks ago.
Quotations of Ukrainian seamless pipes of 2"-14" size grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L are at about $1,200-1,250/mt C&F Bandar Abbas.
Russian pipes 2"-8" grade B as per ASTM A106/API 5L from Volzhsky PP (TMK) are being offered to northern Iranian ports at $1,180-1,230/mt C&F Anzali, against $955-1,000/mt C&F in the middle of January.
Iranian stockists' domestic prices for locally produced seamless pipes:
($/t, ex-warehouse)
Diameter Price Change*
1" 1,910 -270
1 ¼" 1,570 +95
1 ½" 1,430 -90
2" 1,450 -200
2 ½" 1,720 +85
3" 1,710 +185
*over the past four weeks