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Figure 6: Oil price WTI development 1 year up to 3rd February 2022 (US$/Bbl)
Source: Tradingeconomics.com
Market information
Figure 4: World production Steel Tubes and Pipes 2021 Source: ITATube Journal/Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahlrohr/CMIE
Welded Pipes < 16” OD (<406 mm), by far the largest market segment reported a world production increase of 4%. Here Europe (+10%) and USA (+8%) were report- ing the largest increases, The world tube and pipe production 2021 is dominated
by China with a proportion of 55% of the entire world production (Fig. 4)!
Considering the trends of the major tube and pipe market segments (Fig 5), we will briefly discuss the segments OCTG, auto- motive, mechanical engineering and civil construction.
The industry in 2021 had an impressive restart, led by China, and followed by other regions, particularly the USA and Europe. Consequently, the need for energy supplies such as oil and gas ballooned, with direct implications for energy prices and the demand for OCTG tubes and pipes (51% of the total market).
The Western Texas Immediate (WTI) crude oil price boomed from January 2021,
55 US$/Bbl, by 160%, climbing to 88 US$/Bbl on 3rd of February 2022(Fig. 6). On February 24th, 2022, the Russian army started the invasion against its sovereign neighbour Ukraine. The invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin represents an esca- lation of the Russian-Ukrainian war that has been simmering since 2014 by extending it to the entire territory of Ukraine. As coun- termeasure hard sanctions were imposed on Russia. In consequence the prices for energy, gas and oil ballooned to unknown hights of almost 130 US$/Bbl (Fig. 6) on March 8th ,2022. The envisaged shortage
of oil and gas supplies let the US and Euro- pean governments restart talks with the former sanctioned oil producing countries Venezuela and Iran to possibly replace the Russian oil supplies. Somehow the world is suffering from some political leaders of the oil and gas producing countries.
These perspectives and the reappearance of corona in some major Chinese cities released some of the oil price pressure to an oil price of about 95 US$/Bbl these days.
Increased demand from Asia and specula-
Figure 5: Steel tube and pipe markets
Source: ITATube Journal/Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahlrohr
ITAtube Journal April 2022