The Middle East oil & gas market is seeing a good recovery in tendering activity, but this is only benefiting the prices of high-end pipe products, according to pipemaker Vallourec.

“The general recovery and good tendering activity that we see in the Middle East in particular does not equally reflect on increased prices across the board,” Edouard Guinotte, Senior Vice President Middle East/Asia, said on a conference call monitored by Kallanish. “It’s a mixed bag of some niche products which can be tight and some more… standard products which remain quite competitive.” Vallourec “…definitely” expects to get its share of this “…high tendering activity,” he added.

Asked whether some high-end products are in short supply, Vallourec Senior Vice President Development & Innovation Didier Hornet observed: “Yes, we see some tightness happening on some high-end material, typically 13% chromium or super duplex, so this is happening… right now.”

Vallourec chairman Philippe Crouzet added that Middle Eastern tendering activity has improved in terms of both the number of projects and their size. “It’s really big volumes which is ahead of us and that may explain why on the most standard products there is some competition,” he commented.

Vallourec’s Middle East and Asia segment reported a 15% on-year rise in second-quarter revenue to $303 million. In the first half of 2019 revenue grew 4% on-year to $549m, although the segment’s share in Vallourec’s consolidated sales fell 3 percentage points to 26%.