Domestic Spot Prices for Chinese Seamless Pipes Remained Largely Stable

With lacklustre buying activity and stable upstream round billet prices, domestic spot prices for Chinese seamless pipes remained largely stable during the last week of July. The firm rounds prices and the strengthening overall steel prices are likely to continue supporting seamless pipe prices in the short term, before new round billet prices are released at the beginning of August. In the Shanghai market last week, prevailing offer prices for 219x6mm (GB/8163) seamless pipe sourced from the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong were around RMB 5,800/tonne ($897/t) with 17% VAT, essentially stable from the previous week. A market source says the uncertainty in the market was increasing last week as major round billet makers in eastern China will announce their new early-August ex-works prices today. This is expected to indicate a clear market trend, Steel Business Briefing is told. The spot seamless pipe market is unlikely to improve this month however, as it is traditionally a low demand period, some sources say. Currently, both south and north China are facing high temperatures and heavy summer rains which are reining in outdoor construction activity. The machinery and boiler manufacturing sectors also tend to reduce production during the summer which is leading to less seamless pipe demand, sources tell SBB. Source: steelbb.com