Chinese exporters have slashed export offer prices for stainless seamless pipe by $100-780 month-on-month in September, as the cost of nickel has tumbled.

Chinese exporters are offering stainless 304 tube with an outside diameter of 25-100mm and wall thickness of 4-12 mm at $4,300-4,700 per tonne fob eastern China port, down from $4,400-5,480 one month ago.

“Stainless pipe billet prices fell and we just cut prices following raw material changes although, since late August, the market has become quiet again,” a stainless pipe exporter in Huzhou City, Zhejiang province, said.

“Demand is very bad, as we only inked some small contracts from south-east Asia and South America after [the introduction of] the EU anti-dumping policy,” an official at a major stainless seamless pipe producer said.

The EU placed preliminary duties ranging from 48% to 71.5% on all stainless seamless pipe from China in late June.