The most commonly heard pricing for API-X42 ERW line pipe pricing in the US domestic market from Korea is mostly unchanged since our last report a week ago, at $34-$35 cwt. ($750-$772/mt or $680-$700/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports, although some customers report being able to obtain deals close to $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) below this range on volume-sized orders.
Year-on-year import tonnages, however, reflect a nearly 22 percent increase. January 3 data from the US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance shows that for the month of December 2015, the US imported 77,925 mt (census data) of line pipe from global sources; in December 2016, license data shows the US imported 99,791 mt of line pipe from global sources.
Sources close to SteelOrbis have indicated that December sales and activity as being “more robust than anticipated,” which some are attributing to Donald Trump having been elected to serve as the next President of the United States.
“I think the Trump Administration will be good for the steel industry,” one source said.