Starting off the New Year on a strong foot, US standard pipe mills have raised prices to reflect their rising raw material costs.
Most US standard pipe mills are aiming to take advantage of the continuing scrap and consequent flat rolled pricing momentum by increasing offered prices by a minimum $3.00 cwt. ($66/mt or $60/nt) this week, effective immediately. US standard pipe buying activity is still relatively weak; however, most distributors have been experiencing an uptick in inquiries already this week, compared to previous weeks. Mills and distributors are hopeful that activity levels will start to follow the current pricing momentum over the next few months, as spring projects get underway and existing inventories are depleted.
Meanwhile, while the import standard pipe market has been decimated by excess import tonnage at US ports through all of 2009, port dock inventory levels have been shrinking, paving way for new import business. Most offshore sources are also increasing their standard pipe offers to the US by about $3.00 cwt. while others are still determining their next price move. However, most of these offers are still having a difficult time getting booked due to overall low demand and the fact that there is still some excess pipe lying on the ground, mostly at US Gulf ports.
The most aggressive import ERW (electric resistance weld) BPE (black plain end) Grade A standard pipe offers continue to be seen from Korea. Korean offers have increased approximately $3.00 cwt. ($66/mt or $60/nt) since our last report three weeks ago and may currently be found for around $40.00 cwt. to $42.00 cwt. ($882/mt to $926/mt or $800/nt to $840/nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports. Meanwhile, other sources such as Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are also still actively offering ERW BPE to the US; however, most offers are at least $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) higher than Korean offers.
On the coated side, while Indian ERW ASTM A53 galvanized plain end (GPE) standard pipe offers have increased by about $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) from three weeks ago, to approximately $45.00 cwt. to $46.00 cwt. ($992/mt to $1,014/mt or $900/nt to $920/nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports, Indian GPE offers have already risen about $4.00 cwt. ($88/m tot $80/nt) from mid-November, and more increases are likely on the way to keep pace with increasing flat rolled and zinc coating costs.
License data from the US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA) demonstrate that total import tonnage of standard carbon steel pipe increased from 35,134 mt (preliminary census data) in November to 44,491 mt in December. The top four exporters of standard carbon pipe to the US during December were Canada, at 16,355 mt; India, at 4,605 mt; Korea, at 4,544 mt; and Turkey, at 4,069 mt.