As 2026 marks the beginning of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, multiple regions have rolled out intensive investment plans in the first quarter, triggering a wave of major project kick-offs. However, the pace of steel market restarts lags behind, and purchasing willingness remains weak. Against this backdrop, recent seamless pipe transactions have performed relatively well compared to previous years, with market prices rising accordingly.
Today, in Shandong, billet prices continue their upward trend, though the increase has narrowed compared to earlier periods. From the cost perspective, raw material prices remain at high levels, providing solid support for billet prices and limiting short-term downward potential.
On the demand side, market feedback indicates that overall project start-ups are below expectations, and downstream pipe users still face tight funding, resulting in slow demand release. Meanwhile, market inventory remains relatively high, with no significant reduction yet, which continues to exert some pressure on prices.
In summary, in the short term, seamless steel pipe prices lack strong momentum for a sharp rise. The market is expected to maintain a stable-to-strong trend in the near term.
Tags: seamless steel pipe price, steel market forecast 2026, Shandong billet prices,
