Ex-mill pricing for US domestic J55 OCTG casing may be stable, sources say, but mills have been a bit more open to negotiating their prices. That trend, sources note, is directly tied to depressed order activity at the distribution center level coupled with falling US HRC prices.
One source close to SteelOrbis confirmed the lowest recent offer price his company received for US HRC was “under $42 cwt. ($926/mt or $840/nt) ex-mill. Another source said he’s aware of a recent offer to a US pipe mill from a US flats mill, that involved a significant discount, but the pipe mill turned them down.
In terms of current prices, the average ex-US mill range is still trending between $64-$69 cwt. ($1,411-$1,521/mt or $1,280-$1,380/nt) ex-mill, although transactions toward the top of that range are disappearing quickly. Taiwanese J55 ERW OCTG casing is also once again unchanged week-over-week, at $65-$66 cwt. ($1,433-$1,455/mt or $1,300-$1,320/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.