There are many factors to affect stainless steel tube & pipe price, as a leading stainless steel tube and stainless steel pipe manufacturer $ suppliers in China, we try to offer reasonable and exact prices for clients’ options, we have a price calculator system to list prices in a variety of conditions.
In our aspect, we think there are three main decisive factors to stainless steel tube and pipe, material price, manufacturing technology as well as sizes and dimensions, for the manufacturer, material price is not under control, we only improve producing technical, and reduce cost as we can to offer the best price, competing with other suppliers all over the world.
Stainless Steel Price
Stainless steel material price is the basic aspect, of course, different suppliers have different costs, also in prices, therefore, we just research alloy elements to impact stainless steel price here.
As we know, stainless steel consists of various chemical elements, refine these alloys to form stainless steel, these elements include Silicon (Si), Manganese (Mn), Phosphorus (P), Sulfur (S), Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), Molybdenum (Mo), Titanium(Ti), Copper (Cu) and others.
Among these alloys, we have to refer to Nickel content, after study, we can see stainless steel price is relevant to Nickel price, Nickel is an expensive element.
The following curve chart shows the stainless steel and LME Nickel price trend from April 2006 to April 2017, the blue line represents the stainless steel price, the red line means the LME (London Metal Exchange) Nickel price.
Stainless steel price is up and down with Nickel price in the market on the whole trend, in common condition, stainless steel price lay behind Nickel price.
Stainless Steel has many steel grades, mainly categorized as Austenitic steels, Ferritic steels, Martensitic steels, and duplex steels, different grades have different chemical compositions, so there are different prices, and users should choose proper stainless grade according to applications.
We offer a commonly used stainless steel sheet price list to compare these grades, they are cold-rolled 2B finishes.
| Grade/WT (Mm) | 304 | 316L | 321 | 430 | 409L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 | 17950 | ||||
| 0.4 | 16750 | 24300 | 13450 | ||
| 0.5 | 16350 | 23400 | 12150 | 9200 | |
| 0.6 | 16250 | 23300 | 11950 | 9100 | |
| 0.7 | 16100 | 23100 | 11850 | 8900 | |
| 0.8 | 16000 | 22900 | 18800 | 11650 | 8900 |
| 0.9 | 15900 | 22850 | 18700 | 11500 | 8500 |
| 1.0 | 15900 | 22800 | 18700 | 11450 | 8500 |
| 1.2 | 15700 | 22700 | 18500 | 11300 | 8400 |
| 1.5 | 15700 | 22500 | 18450 | 11050 | 8400 |
| 2.0 | 15700 | 22400 | 18350 | 11000 | 8400 |
| 2.5 | 15600 | 22400 | 18350 | 10950 | 8400 |
| 3.0 | 16600 | 22400 | 19350 | 10950 | 8400 |
| 4.0 | 16100 | 23350 | 19150 | ||
| 5.0 | 16100 | 23350 | 19150 | ||
| 6.0 | 16700 | 23950 | 19200 |
Manufacturing Technology
Welded and seamless tube & pipe types are two producing processes by manufacturing technology, they are different, and Manufacturers should calculate the cost during the manufacturing process, maybe every manufacturer has different costs, and high cost requires improving technology to enhance competitiveness in price.
Welded Tube & Pipe Price
Welded tube and pipe start from strip or plate, welding two edges by welding technology to form final products, there are different welding methods to opt costs are different, main welding methods list the following:
- TIG
- ERW
- ERW
- HFW
These main popular types are different costs, including equipment cost, material cost and energy cost, they affect total cost in tube & pipe price and result in different welding quality, users should specify concern welding method if needed.
Seamless Tube & Pipe Price
Seamless tube & pipe start from billet, in comparison with welded tube & pipe, the producing procedure of seamless tube is more complex, the main process includes cold drawing, cold rolling, heat treating, and pickling, some processes need to be repeated, which result in more cost, seamless tube & pipe use offline furnace for heat treatment, which generates more cost as well.
Therefore, seamless tubes & pipes usually have longer production times, However, seamless types have higher strength and excellent properties to resist corrosion attack.
Choosing which type of tube & pipe depends on the final user application, of course, price is an important factor, proper price is beneficial to manufacturers and buyers.
Tube & Pipe Sizes
There are many sizes and dimensions for stainless steel tubes & pipes to meet various applications, such as large diameter pipe, small diameter tubing, thin wall tube as well as heavy wall pipe.
Different sizes may have different production processes and different costs too, complex processes mean high prices.
Tube size is expressed to different units, like inch, mm, foot, and meter, these units can be converted from each other if required, so tube & pipe prices are often offered in various forms, in general, stainless steel tube & pipe per meter and pound are popular, seamless type use weight unit to delivery.
Checking stainless steel tube sizes and weight for reference.
In Conclusion
As a China stainless steel tube & pipe supplier, we analyze the main factors to impact tube and pipe price, material price ( stainless steel price ), manufacturing technology ( welded and seamless ), and sizes, we should calculate the price in reasonable conditions and offer competitive price, there are other factors to affect price, like value additional service required, bright annealing, polishing, cutting and others.