Yunnan Tingyuan Steel Pipe Co., Ltd., wholesale and retail supplier, Tianjin Youfa Galvanized Pipe, Hebei Tianchuang Galvanized Pipe, Chengdu Huaxi Galvanized Pipe, Yunnan Fangyuan Galvanized Pipe, Yunnan Huifeng Galvanized Pipe, Welded Pipes, Square Pipes, Rectangular Pipes, Spiral Pipes, Seamless Pipes, Scaffold Pipes, Steel Pipe Manufacturers. Reviewing the price trend of domestic welded pipes and galvanized pipes in March, the overall trend showed a rise after a drop, followed by another rise. Mysteel learned that from late February to early March, the construction start-up rate in the country generally increased, the trading volume of domestic welded pipes improved, and with the recovery of market demand, under the supply and demand confrontation, the price of welded pipes also rose, by the mid-to-late March, affected by outbreaks in various regions of the country, and some downstream construction sites had suspended operations, coupled with the turbulent overseas situation, the market index turned negative, China's steel prices fell, and the price of welded pipes generally fell; in the mid-to-late March, the situation in the North China region was severe, especially in Tangshan, as the main producer of domestic strip steel, the situation affected the supply and transportation of domestic strip steel, the raw material strip steel price rose due to supply and demand relations, the cost of welded pipes rose, pipe factories increased the ex-factory price of welded pipes to prevent profit reversal, and the market price of welded pipes rose again. Reviewing the past years' March and April, it has always been a busy period of spring construction, but this year's situation and macro news have had a profound and unexpected impact on the welded pipe market. Then, as the domestic situation gradually gets under control, whether the urgent demand in our country can be released in the upcoming April, whether the currently high price of welded pipes can continue to rise, next, the author will briefly summarize the recent market from the perspective of price, supply and demand, and predict the trend of welded pipe prices in April. 1. Price and Profit Situation 1. The price was slightly stronger in March. The overall trend of the price of welded pipes in March was an increase followed by a decrease, and then another increase. As of March 31, the national average price of 4-inch * 3.75mm welded pipes in China was 5,454 yuan/ton, up 50 yuan/ton from the previous week and 148 yuan/ton from the previous month, up 18 yuan/ton from the same period last year. Reviewing the domestic welded pipe market in March, the market sales and inventory were greatly affected, and the market showed a situation of both weak supply and demand. The price difference between welded pipes and galvanized pipes narrowed, and the profit of welded pipes recovered. As of March 31, the price difference between Tianjin welded pipes and galvanized pipes was 730 yuan/ton, down 40 yuan/ton from the previous week and 70 yuan/ton from the same period last year. In terms of profit, taking Tianjin as an example, the profit margin for this week's welded pipe order was -80 yuan/ton, unchanged from the previous week, and 130 yuan/ton higher than last year; the profit margin for galvanized pipe orders was -98 yuan/ton, down 56 yuan/ton from the previous week, and 118 yuan/ton higher than the same period last year. 2. Supply Side 1. The utilization rate of pipe factories and production capacity both decreased. According to the research data of our website on 29 mainstream pipe factories in the country, this week's production of welded pipes was 389,000 tons, down 44,000 tons from the previous week, the production capacity utilization rate was 74.2%, down 8.3% from the previous week, the operating rate was 74.5%, down 3.1% from the previous week, and the inventory in the factory was 403,000 tons, down 4,000 tons from the previous week, and the raw material inventory was 744,000 tons, down 63,000 tons from the previous week. The output of galvanized pipes (28 factories) was 313,000 tons, down 33,000 tons from the previous week, the production capacity utilization rate was 79.6%, down 8.4% from the previous week, the operation rate of galvanized wire was 80%, up 1.1% from the previous week, and the inventory in the factory was 398,000 tons, up 6,000 tons from the previous week, and the weekly zinc ingot consumption was 6,011 tons, down 259 tons from the previous week. From the production data, it can be seen that the capacity utilization rate and operating rate of pipe factories in the Chinese welded pipe market show a clear downward trend. The author believes that there are the following important reasons: domestic influence on raw material supply of pipe factories, insufficient strip steel supply, pipe factories "have no food to cook," and passive production reduction; secondly, the supply of raw material strip steel is less than demand, the market price is relatively high, the profit of welded pipe production is high, and pipe factories actively reduce production; in addition, due to the fact that downstream construction sites are mostly suspended, and the acceptance of the current high price of welded pipes is not high, the overall demand of downstream projects has not been released, causing the current situation. 2. Social inventory of welded pipes slightly increased, market transactions were not good. In terms of inventory, by the end of the month, the production and inventory of pipe factories both decreased, and the decrease in production of affected pipe factories was significant. The inventory decreased slightly, and the sales of pipe factories were not ideal. The social inventory increased slightly, among which the inventory in South China, North China, and Northeast China decreased slightly, and the inventory in other regions increased slightly. By the time of publication, the inventory of welded pipes in major cities across the country was 927.8万吨, up 0.78 million tons from the previous week, down 1.61 million tons from the same period last month, and up 0.93 million tons from the same period last year; under the situation where the factory inventory, production capacity utilization rate, and factory inventory of pipe factories all showed a significant decline, there was a gap in the replenishment of factory inventory to social inventory, but the social inventory increased. Analysis shows that the demand for welded pipes in the market is still low, and the overall transaction situation of the welded pipe market is not good.