US Steel this week announced they will be laying off 770 employees within their tubular division “due to challenging market conditions, including fluctuating oil prices, reduced rig counts, depressed steel prices and unfairly traded imports. All of these factors continue to reduce demand for tubular goods,” a spokesperson said.
The company also laid off 2,000 workers at its Granite City Works plant last December.
The move is tied to still-soft global oil barrel prices; oil prices fell below $40 per barrel on Thursday afternoon. It should also be noted that Baker Hughes last reported that for the week ending March 18, the US rotary rig count (476) was at the lowest level since Baker Hughes started counting rigs in 1949. “It is likely the lowest back to around 1860 or 1900 if only rotary drilling rigs are counted,” the report noted.
All of this continues to have a negative impact on the US domestic and import line pipe markets. Futures prices from Korean and Taiwanese producers for API X-42 EWR line pipe are still trending in an approximate range of $25.50-$26.50 cwt. ($562-$586/mt or $510-$530/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf Coast, while US domestic spot market prices are also mostly steady week-on-week, at approximately $45.00-$46.00 cwt. ($992-$1,014/mt or $900-$920/nt), ex-Midwest mill, but as in previous weeks, all pricing is flexible.