In 2025, China's seamless steel pipe exports reached 6.283 million tons, a record high, but the average export price fell 6.03% year-on-year, showing a clear pattern of "volume up, price down". In terms of destinations, the Middle East accounted for 42.02%, with Europe and Central Asia combined at 17.71%, as the market continues to concentrate along the Belt and Road region. Domestically, however, capacity utilization is only around 65%, with over 10 million tons of new and proposed capacity added since 2022, highlighting a severe supply glut.
Demand shows clear structural divergence. Oil and gas extraction and transportation remain the largest downstream sector at approximately 42.1%, followed by machinery manufacturing at 26.7%, together accounting for nearly 70%. The high-end alloy pipe market is running near full capacity, with production lines for deep-well extraction, ultra-supercritical boilers, and marine engineering pipes operating above 90%, and some producers' order books extending into the next year. Meanwhile, demand for ordinary medium-thick wall pipes remains limited, homogeneous competition is intensifying, and the industry's average profit margin has fallen below 2%.
In terms of competitive landscape, leading players are pursuing distinctly different strategies. CITIC Special Steel follows a "scale + OCTG" route with seamless pipe capacity exceeding 5 million tons, while Hunan Valin Hengyang Steel focuses on extra-large diameters covering 323.8 to 630 mm. On the export front, the Middle East situation has caused short-term disruption to Persian Gulf orders, but pipeline expansion projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to support demand for high-grade line pipe. The hot rolled seamless carbon steel pipe industry is at a critical transition from scale expansion to value creation, where high-end and differentiated capabilities will determine the survival space for enterprises.
