The recently announced $5.00 cwt. ($110/mt or $100/nt) price increase for US domestic unfinished J55 electric resistance welded (ERW) oil country tubular goods (OCTG) casing has yet to gain traction. The most commonly reported transaction range is unchanged in the past week and is still in the approximate range of $58.00-$61.00 cwt. ($1,279-$1,344/mt or $1,160-$1,220/nt) ex-Midwest mill, depending on the size of the order. Industry insiders continue report that although demand is steady, it is nowhere near where it would need to be in order to support price firming, especially in that August import tonnages for OCTG casing were at the highest they've been in the past 13 months, and September import tonnages expected to be even higher.
Meanwhile, trader sources have confirmed that despite a recent attempt to push prices for previously ordered, already on-the-ground and still-arriving unfinished J55 ERW OCTG casing from Taiwan and Korea up by $2.50 cwt. ($55/mt or $50/nt), deals in the range of $43.00-$44.00 cwt. ($948-$970/mt or $860-$880/nt) can still be negotiated. New offshore offerings, on the other hand, remain quiet. As in previous weeks, this trend is expected to sustain until the ITC makes its final determinations in the July-filed trade case against the nine most significant offshore importers of OCTG casing to the US. If the investigations follow a normal schedule, final injury determinations will be made on the antidumping case against India, Korea, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the Ukraine in April 2014, whereas the countervailing duty case determinations against India and Turkey will be announced in January 2014.