Page 10 - ITAtube Journal 2 2022

Market information
Figure 4: US Hot-Rolled Coil Steel prices 1 Year until December 2023, Source: tradingeconomics.com
Pipe manufacturers buy hot-rolled coils, round billets, or plates as input material for their production lines. More than 70 % of the total world pipe production, i.e. about 110 million tonnes/year, are welded tubes and pipes. Welded tube producers are highly dependent on attractive hot rolled coil prices and large OD pipe (pipeline) pro- ducers, on plate prices. Average prices for hot-rolled coils in the US came down from March 2023 (ab. 1320 USD/ton) to Septem- ber 2023 (ab. 700 USD/ton). Since then, the HRC prices strengthened again to prices of about 1.000 USD/ton. Furthermore, tube producers suffer from shortages in the availability of special tube material specifi- cations. In comparison figure 5 shows the Hot Rolled Coil prices from Turkey, Italy and India. The volatility is much less and with about 600 – 700 USD/ton even structural pipes can be processed.
Steel plates are traded now in November 2023 for low grade plates at about 720 -750 USD/ton.
Billet prices, used for seamless tubes are traded for an average of around 475 USD/ ton.
In 2023 almost all prices for tubular pre-materials were quite volatile. It remains a challenge to predict the pre-material prices.
After the pipe price rally until 2nd half of 2022 (prices went up by 50%), now since then, the price index for tubular products weakened by about 25% (Figure 6).
Even the booming US demand was report- ing fading pipe prices. Until the beginning of October 2022, pipe prices in the US were holding at high levels, but in November fears were being voiced from many regions that demand for pipes is weakening, which had an immediate impact on prices. The decline in pipe demand and its negative impact on prices is now in some regions faster than the decline in prices for the input materials hot-rolled coils, plates and round billets. This challenges some pipe producers since they face margin losses.
ITAtube Journal December 2023
Figure 5: Hot-Rolled Coil Steel prices Turkey, Italy and India 1 Year until December 2023
Source: Kallanish.com
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Figure 6: Average Steel Tube and Pipe Price Index Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics