Prices for both
US domestic and import oil country
tubular goods (OCTG) casing may have held steady in the past seven days, with domestics holding at $59.00-$61.00 cwt. ($1,300-$1344/mt or $1,180-$1,220/nt) ex-Midwest mill while futures offers from Taiwanese and Korean mills continue to span within the approximate ranges of $51.00-$52.00 cwt. ($1,124-$1,146/mt or $1,020-$1,040/nt) and $52.00-$53.00 cwt. ($1,146-$1,168/mt or $1,040-$1,060/nt), respectively, both DDP loaded truck in
US Gulf coast ports. Trader sources, however, say that Korean-producer Nexsteel is so bogged down with orders at this point that they are booked out to March, and once you calculate shipping time, orders won’t be arriving 6 to 8 months. There are also rumors that Brazilian mills have entered the market with a vengeance, and they may be offering deals as much as $2.50-$5.00 cwt. ($55-$110/mt or $50-$100/nt) below their Korean counterparts.
In terms of domestic happenings, SteelOrbis say they are seeing positives in the marketplace. Rig counts are up roughly 8.9 percent year-on-year, according to the most recent report from Baker Hughes. “Inventory is definitely moving,” according to one Midwest-based service center source, “but of the other distributors I know, no one is exactly popping out the champagne bottles just yet.”