Page 11 - ITAtube Journal 2 2022

Market information
Figure 7, shows the price development for two representative tube grades since June 2022:
- P110 OCTG O.D. 5,5” alloyed casing pipes - S235 non alloyed structural pipe.
The OCTG pipe price for P110, after its hight in October 2022 (ab. 3.900 USD/ton) suffered a price decline of ab. 46% until November 2023 (ab. 2.100 USD/ton). The structural pipe S235 although on a much lower price niveau almost maintained its price level at ab. 800 USD/ton.
The world tube and pipe production after a slight downturn in 2022 of -3,1%, had an impressive recovery in 2023 1st half year extrapolated of about +15% (Figure 8).
Anyhow substantial regional differences are reported. CIS (+77%), the strong growth most likely due to compensation
of imported pipes by local production. Remarkable is that contrary to the trend, the production of welded tubes < 406
mm OD was suffering by – 24% (Figure
9). USA (+18%) with strong growth in all dimensional segments driven by the strong economic situation (Figure 10). China representing more than 50% of the world tube production had a further gain of
13%, which is by far more than the overall economic growth in China (Figure 11).
Just India had a downturn of 22% (Figure 12) which may be explained that the tube production in the second half of 2023 will be much higher than the production in the first 6 months of 2023. Similar effect was reported in previous years.
Figure 7: Representative Steel Tube and Pipe Prices (OCTG – P110 USA and Structural S235 Turkey)
Source: Kallanish.com
ITAtube Journal December 2023
11
Figure 8: World Tube and Pipe Production 2017 – 2023 extrap- olated 1st half year.
Source: Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahlrohre e.V.