Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Turkish mills have raised import API X-42 electric resistance welded (ERW) line pipe CFR prices to the US by about $40/mt since the middle of February, but CFR pricing from all four countries has stabilized within the past week. While it’s generally understood that the increases are a reaction to increased raw material costs, it hasn’t made it any easier for the mills to collect orders at the higher price levels. The biggest challenge, though, is that the US domestic line pipe market continues to be drastically oversaturated. Trader sources have said that interest in booking futures continues to trend very light and “mills can raise prices all they want, but getting customers to absorb them is an entirely different matter.” At the current time, buyers interested in booking offshore line pipe are not being met with much resistance at placing orders at pre-increase levels. The average import sales price in the US on API X-42 line pipe out of each of these countries continues to be in the approximate range of $43.00-$44.00 cwt. ($948-$970/mt or $860-$880/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, unchanged in the past week.
The domestic market has also remained steady over the last week, as short lead times and steady-but-light order activity is the apparent trend. Spot prices for API X-42 ERW line pipe have remained in the range of $54.00-$55.00 cwt. ($1,191-$1,212/mt or $1,080-$1,100/nt) ex-mill, reflecting no change since last week. Lead times are still at about four weeks, and buyers are able to book orders for previously imported position tons between $3.00-$5.00 cwt. ($66-$110/mt or $60-$100/nt) below mill prices, as they have been for the past few months. Supply and demand dynamics remain off balance; and according to distributor sources, sellers are aggressively quoting bids to buyers, which makes it difficult to determine a true average transaction range.