Recent upticks in
US domestic scrap and hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have led to upticks in standard pipe mills’ input costs, which have made deals on spot market purchases less likely.
The most commonly reported spot market price transaction range for
US domestic Grade A ERW BPE standard pipe may be unchanged in the past two weeks, at approximately $39.50-$40.50 cwt. ($871-$893/mt or $790-$810/nt), ex-Midwest mill, but previously heard deals, that in some cases trended as much as $3.00 cwt. ($66/mt or $60/nt) below this range based on tonnage, have become much less likely.
“You may have some of the big guys that are getting deals on tonnages but the mid to smaller level buyers are no longer eligible to receive that pricing,” one source notes. “HRC prices continue to firm and scrap prices settled strong across the
US this month so the pipe mills feel they need to keep prices strong in order to offset their input costs.
In terms of
US standard pipe import tonnages, April 5 data from the
US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance indicates that for the month of March,
US import standard pipe tonnages were recorded at 60,376 mt (license data) which reflects a slight decline from the 62,635 mt (preliminary census data) tons that arrived at
US ports in February. Year-on-year
US import tons, however, are down. In March 2015,
US import standard pipe tonnages were recorded at 76,940 mt (census data.)