Welded hollow sections prices by country (HS 730661)
Last updated
Welded square and rectangular hollow sections (HS 730661) cleared at a median 1,102 USD per tonne inbound and 1,006 outbound in 2024, down 13.1 % against 2023, across 33 markets.
Square and rectangular hollow sections are formed from the same strip as round tube but finished differently, and they are priced as a conversion on top of that strip rather than as a commodity of their own. That makes this heading a good place to watch how much of a finished price is steel and how much is fabrication.
- 1,102 USD/tmidpoint of the import column, 2024
- 33markets reporting
- HS 730661HS code covered
Median import unit value in other units: 1,102 USD/t · 1.10 USD/kg · 0.500 USD/lb
What importers declared
What each market paid for welded hollow sections, 2024
| Country | Tonnes | USD/tonne | Value (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1,083,841 | 1,106 | 1,198.2 |
| Spain | 390,224 | 1,150 | 448.6 |
| Romania | 320,306 | 794 | 254.4 |
| Netherlands | 286,566 | 777 | 222.7 |
| Poland | 234,798 | 1,107 | 259.8 |
| Kazakhstan | 168,639 | 700 | 118.0 |
| Australia | 167,118 | 938 | 156.7 |
| United Kingdom | 142,763 | 951 | 135.8 |
| Canada | 101,120 | 1,227 | 124.1 |
| South Africa | 77,179 | 533 | 41.2 |
| Mexico | 73,595 | 1,745 | 128.4 |
| United Arab Emirates | 57,628 | 917 | 52.8 |
| Italy | 43,654 | 1,205 | 52.6 |
| Saudi Arabia | 31,776 | 774 | 24.6 |
| Morocco | 30,950 | 1,751 | 54.2 |
| Türkiye | 30,229 | 1,644 | 49.7 |
| Uzbekistan | 20,339 | 964 | 19.6 |
| Tanzania | 13,303 | 971 | 12.9 |
| Oman | 13,208 | 787 | 10.4 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 8,816 | 795 | 7.0 |
| Qatar | 8,277 | 839 | 6.9 |
| Kuwait | 7,625 | 1,113 | 8.5 |
| Ghana | 7,119 | 765 | 5.4 |
| Senegal | 7,047 | 527 | 3.7 |
| Egypt | 6,633 | 1,117 | 7.4 |
| Algeria | 5,920 | 1,113 | 6.6 |
| Bahrain | 3,529 | 1,255 | 4.4 |
| Tunisia | 3,101 | 1,102 | 3.4 |
| Lebanon | 2,993 | 1,102 | 3.3 |
| Nigeria | 797 | 2,316 | 1.8 |
| Iraq | 617 | 854 | 0.5 |
| Jordan | 503 | 1,346 | 0.7 |
| Kenya | 243 | 1,699 | 0.4 |
Sorted by tonnage. Because import values are declared CIF in almost every system here, distance is baked into the price.
Loading-port values by country
What each exporter received for welded hollow sections, 2024
| Country | Tonnes | USD/tonne | Value (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Türkiye | 1,831,958 | 719 | 1,318.0 |
| Italy | 1,086,221 | 1,239 | 1,345.3 |
| Canada | 334,559 | 1,360 | 455.0 |
| Spain | 257,661 | 1,030 | 265.4 |
| Germany | 236,984 | 1,750 | 414.7 |
| United Kingdom | 199,988 | 1,167 | 233.3 |
| Mexico | 173,468 | 1,185 | 205.5 |
| Poland | 140,190 | 1,073 | 150.5 |
| Netherlands | 139,259 | 898 | 125.1 |
| Romania | 95,719 | 936 | 89.6 |
| Ghana | 71,140 | 801 | 57.0 |
| United Arab Emirates | 47,671 | 899 | 42.9 |
| Oman | 40,139 | 761 | 30.5 |
| Tanzania | 34,853 | 771 | 26.9 |
| South Africa | 28,351 | 1,021 | 28.9 |
| Kenya | 15,058 | 830 | 12.5 |
| Senegal | 9,142 | 1,009 | 9.2 |
| Australia | 6,337 | 1,479 | 9.4 |
| Saudi Arabia | 4,805 | 850 | 4.1 |
| Kazakhstan | 4,294 | 627 | 2.7 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2,276 | 762 | 1.7 |
| Uzbekistan | 1,379 | 763 | 1.1 |
| Morocco | 762 | 1,476 | 1.1 |
| Kuwait | 465 | 1,003 | 0.5 |
| Bahrain | 431 | 1,224 | 0.5 |
| Tunisia | 329 | 1,015 | 0.3 |
| Egypt | 140 | 1,101 | 0.2 |
| Lebanon | 131 | 1,015 | 0.1 |
| Nigeria | 111 | 958 | 0.1 |
| Algeria | 4 | 1,003 | 0.0 |
These are loading-port values. Freight to the buyer is not in them.
Reading the welded hollow sections numbers
- The set runs Senegal at 527 USD per tonne up to Nigeria at 2,316, 339 % apart. Wall thickness explains most of it, since thin wall sections carry more forming cost per tonne.
- Hollow sections arrived at 3,350,456 tonnes across the reporting markets in welded hollow sections of 2024, worth 3,425 million dollars, Germany holding 32 %.
- Germany earns 644 USD per tonne more on export than it spends on import, the profile of a section mill rather than a distributor.
What sits inside HS 730661
The unit value tracks the strip the section was formed from plus roughly 120–200 USD of forming, welding and bundling.
- The forming and welding conversion over strip normally lands between 120 and 200 USD per tonne; anything far outside that is a mix effect.
- Corner radius is a design input, not a detail: EN 10219 cold-formed sections and EN 10210 hot-finished sections have different radii and different structural behaviour.
- Thin wall sizes under 2 mm are bought by furniture and fencing markets and price well above structural sections of the same outside dimension.
- Weight per metre, not price per tonne, is how a fabricator should compare offers, because two mills can hit the same nominal size at different wall tolerances.
How these unit values are computed, and where they mislead →
Need a price for your size list?
Section size, wall thickness, grade and length are the whole enquiry — dimensional tables for these sizes are published on thesteelprice.com.
Welded hollow sections unit values by year
Median customs unit value for HS 730661 by year, USD per tonne
| Year | Import median | Export median | Export change | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 870 | 830 | — | 19 |
| 2021 | 1,170 | 1,353 | +63 % | 15 |
| 2022 | 1,203 | 1,442 | +6.6 % | 15 |
| 2023 | 1,255 | 1,157 | -19.8 % | 20 |
| 2024 | 1,102 | 1,006 | -13.1 % | 28 |
The substrate is hot-rolled or galvanized coil, so the distance between this series and HS 7208 or HS 7210 in the same year is the forming and welding margin.
Which markets moved, and when
Export unit value by market and year, USD per tonne (HS 730661)
| Market | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | — | 1,937 | 2,049 | 1,861 | 1,750 |
| Romania | 671 | — | 1,209 | 988 | 936 |
| Saudi Arabia | 674 | 1,036 | — | 1,145 | 850 |
| Kazakhstan | 1,064 | — | 905 | — | 627 |
| Türkiye | — | — | 924 | 773 | 719 |
| United Arab Emirates | 673 | 1,019 | — | 899 | — |
Blank cells mean the market reported no export of this heading that year, or the declared mass was too small to give a meaningful unit value.
Questions about welded hollow sections prices
What is the price of steel hollow sections per tonne?
Median declared unit value for HS 730661 was 1,102 USD per tonne on import and 1,006 on export in 2024, across 33 markets. Square and rectangular tube is a converted product: the number sits above the coil it was formed from by the cost of forming, welding and cutting to length.
Are hollow section prices going up?
Median export value moved down by -13.1 % from 2023 to 2024. Because the substrate is hot-rolled or galvanized coil, compare this heading with HS 7208 and HS 7210 for the same years — the gap is the conversion margin.
Why is the spread 527 to 2,316?
Wall thickness and finish. Thin-wall light framing and thick-wall structural sections share the heading, and pre-galvanized or painted tube adds a coating cost on top. Senegal is at the light commodity end, Nigeria at the structural or coated end.
Are galvanized hollow sections in this heading?
Yes, both pre-galvanized tube formed from coated coil and tube galvanized after forming are declared here, which widens the range. Note which one you are comparing — the zinc is inside the declared weight.
What is inside HS 730661?
Welded tubes and pipes of square or rectangular cross-section, of iron or non-alloy steel. Circular welded tube is HS 730630.