Reluctance from US J55 electric resistance welded (ERW) oil country tubular goods (OCTG) casing buyers, coupled by a global slowdown, is putting downward pressure on import prices. Korean offer prices to the US fell by $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) last week to approximately $48.00-$50.00 cwt. ($1,058-$1,102/mt or $960-$1,000/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, and in the last week, Taiwanese offer prices have dropped into a similar range, reflecting an approximately $1.00 cwt. decline. As usual, Vietnamese prices remain about $0.50-$1.00 cwt. ($11-$22/mt or $10-$20/nt) lower. Trader sources tell SteelOrbis that a handful of Indian mills have offered OCTG casing to the US (Indian mills have been consistently offering seamless OCTG tubing to the US), and a few US orders have been booked, but many buyers are not yet confident in the reliability and quality of the material for there to be too much interest in the product just yet.
Import prices could fall again in the next couple weeks, as general malaise throughout the Far East has been pushing down pipe prices in the domestic Korean and Taiwanese markets. In the US domestic market, many buyers are also keeping orders to a minimum when possible as price weakness remains. While domestic spot prices are still largely between $65.00-$66.00 cwt. ($1,433-$1,455/mt or $1,300-$1,320/nt) ex-Midwest mill, that weakness is particularly evident in individual spot deals that mills have been making to fill rolling schedules.