Traders continue to face difficulty in convincing US customers to book the large tonnages necessary to make an offshore order feasible. The little activity that is taking place is being booked with Korean mills, from which electric resistance welded (ERW) black plain end (BPE) Grade A standard pipe offer prices in the US are still approximately $45.00-$46.00 cwt. ($992-$1,014/mt or $900-$920/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, unchanged in the last two weeks. Turkish prices in the US are between $46.00-$46.50 cwt. ($1,014-$1,025/mt or $920-$930/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports and aren't garnering too much attention at the moment either, but with US domestic spot prices likely to rise in the next couple weeks, that may begin to change.
US domestic pipe mills have not yet been able to push through any of their $2.50 cwt. ($55/mt or $50/nt) price increase announced in mid-November, but the majority of spot market activity is now occurring on the upper end of the $46.50-$47.50 cwt. ($1,025-$1,047/mt or $930-$950/nt) ex-Midwest mill range, unchanged from late November. Furthermore, now that US domestic flats mills have been able to implement a significant portion of their own increases over the past month, industry insiders tell SteelOrbis that pipe mills may also issue another round of price increases, to match their rising raw material costs and to help collect the initial pipe price increase in full.