Amid quiet activity and downward pricing pressure, both US domestic spot prices and import standard pipe prices have fallen since early August.
In the last two weeks, US domestic spot prices for electric resistance welded (ERW) black plain end (BPE) A53 Grade A standard pipe have dropped $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt) to $47.50-$48.50 cwt. ($1,047-$1,069/mt or $950-$970/nt) ex-Midwest mill, although SteelOrbis has learned of some deals being made up to $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) below the current spot price range. Considering overall weak demand from end-use sectors such as construction, and the uncertainty of the US domestic flat-rolled market, where hot rolled coil (HRC) spot prices are currently $31.00-$33.00 cwt. ($683-$728/mt or $620-$660/nt) ex-Midwest mill (unchanged from last week but down $1.00 cwt. in the last two weeks), another drop in domestic standard pipe spot prices is highly possible by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, import activity is "nothing to write home about," according to one trader in the South, but it isn't completely silent either. The $1.00 cwt. drop in Korean and Indian prices last week keeps the spread between the import prices and US domestic spot prices for standard pipe at approximately $5.00 cwt. ($110/mt or $100/nt). Therefore, a decent amount of orders continue to be placed with Indian and Korean mills for ERW BPE A53 Grade A standard pipe, both now in the range of $43.50-$44.50 cwt. ($959-$981/mt or $870-$890/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
Arriving standard pipe imports to the US are stable as well. According to US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the US imported 74,821 mt (license data) of standard pipe in July compared to 66,952 mt (census data) imported in June. Canada remained the US' top source for imported standard pipe in July (15,743 mt), but Vietnam was the US' largest offshore source, exporting 11,678 mt in July. The US imported 6,791 mt of standard pipe from Russia in July, followed closely by India (6,706 mt), Thailand (5,561 mt) and the UAE (5,479 mt). License data show 29,954 mt of standard pipe arriving in the US so far in August (as of August 16), but August imports still have time to catch up.