Import pricing for J55 ERW oil country tubular goods casing (OCTG) in the US domestic market from Taiwan and Korea may be steady week-over-week, but sources close to SteelOrbis say that upticks in demand are causing some end-users to scramble.
“There are two camps of people right now. There are the people who planned and re-stocked their inventory and there are the people who waited too long and in some cases, to the last minute, and those people are getting pinched,” one source said. “If you book today, the offshore stuff won’t ship until the summer and the lead times out of the domestic mills are getting longer every day.”
In terms of current price points, offer prices from Taiwan for unfinished J55 ERW OCTG casing in the US domestic market are still being heard around the level of $42.50 cwt. ($937/mt or $850/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports, while prices from Korea for unfinished J55 ERW OCTG casing in the US domestic market are being heard in the approximate range of $42.50-$44.00 cwt. ($937-$970/mt or $850-$880/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.
In terms of US domestic pricing, domestic mills are still selling at an approximate level of $50.00 cwt. ($1102/mt or $1000/nt), ex-mill, although sources note that “prices are inching up almost daily due to increases in scrap and hot rolled coil costs.”