Market players within the US import API X-52 line pipe market say that offshore mills have “completely stopped quoting” after Donald Trump said he would make an announcement next week about his decision to move forward with a 25 percent tariff against steel imports.
“We can’t quote anything because we don’t know if this is going through, and if it is, what the effective date will be and whether there will be any attempts to make it retroactive,” a source said. “We won’t know much until the dust settles. Even before Trump’s announcement yesterday we were having mills come to us saying they couldn’t and wouldn’t ship until we all figured out what was going on.”
The most recently heard pricing for import API-X52 ERW line pipe in the US domestic market from Mexico was at $47-$48 cwt. ($1036-$1058/mt or $940-$960/nt), FOB Houston, while the last heard pricing for import API-X52 ERW line pipe in the US domestic market from Taiwan was in the range of $41.50-$42.50 cwt. ($915-$937/mt or $830-$850/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.