Following an influx of imports last month and ongoing overcapacity concerns for commodity products, sources tell SteelOrbis that some US domestic J55 electric resistance welded (ERW) oil country tubular goods (OCTG) casing mills have been scouring for business. As a result, mills have had to be more flexible with spot prices for larger orders, and there continues to be room to negotiate deals below the current spot range of $66.00-$67.00 cwt. ($1,455-$1,477/mt or $1,320-$1,340/nt) ex-Midwest mill. Demand, however, remains firm, and March was a strong month for mills and traders alike; nonetheless, with availability from unsold import tons (largely from Korea and Turkey) and US domestic mills more than sufficient, US price discounting will remain prevalent.
Meanwhile, traders have been cautious with offshore purchases lately, telling their customers to do the same, according to one US distributor in the Midwest. The drop in import offer prices a few weeks ago scared buyers from making offshore purchases right now, due to fears prices could come down again in the next couple weeks, but not by much--some futures prices are already approaching production cost. For the time being, Korean, Taiwanese and Indian J55 ERW OCTG casing sales prices in the US are still between $47.50-$48.50 cwt. ($1,047-$1069/mt or $950-$970/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, unchanged from last week, with offers from Turkey, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines within a similar range or just below.