The
US Department of Commerce today announced new dumping margins against Korean OCTG imports.
According to the announcement, SeAH has been assigned a dumping margin of 2.76 percent, Nexteel has been assigned a dumping margin of 24.92 percent and all other producers have been assigned margins of 13.84 percent.
Prior to today’s announcement, Nexteel had been assigned a margin of 3.98 percent. Hyundai Hysco Co. has been assigned a margin of 6.49 percent, while all other producers had been assigned margins of 5.24 percent.
Numerous sources close to SteelOrbis say that Korean OCTG producers, along with
US-based traders, “had stopped quoting [Korean material] to customers altogether because everyone has been waiting to see where the dust would settle.”
“Any producer that winds up with margins under 20 percent will still be in the game,” a trader said on Monday. “Any mill that gets margins close to or over 25 percent will be knocked out of the market.”
Another source points out that while all Korean OCTG producers outside of Nexsteel will still be able to ship to the
US, “There’s tons of material that’s due to arrive in the next 15 days. Anything that was shipped from Nexteel will be subject to cancellation. They’re easily the largest volume shipper of Korean material to the
US and it’s going to take a few days to see how all this sorts out.”
In terms of current J55 ERW OCTG pricing, offers prices from
US and Taiwanese producers have remained stable week-over-week.
US pricing for finished J55 ERW OCTG casing is still being heard at $50-$52 cwt. ($1102-$1146/mt or $1000-$1040/nt), ex-mill, while prices for unfinished J55 ERW OCTG casing from Taiwan in the
US domestic market are still being heard at $40.00-$42.50 cwt. ($882-$937/mt or $800-$850/nt), due to mills’ increased input costs.
Sources say they fully expect to receive new prices from Korean OCTG producers “in the very near future.”