US domestic J55 ERW OCTG mills may be trying to push prices higher due to run-ups on
US domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices, but sources close to SteelOrbis say there’s still “so much pipe on the ground that any mill price is irrelevant.”
TMP IPSCO and Evraz Inc. NA both announced they’d be raiding transaction prices on seamless and ERW OCTG casing by $75/nt at the end of last month.
One service center source said that if anyone finds themselves in need of something they don’t have in stock, “we’re basically brokering it. If I can get OCTG casing from another service center in a different part of the country, because it’s easier to get it from them than to pay freight costs, and the inventory they’re selling has been on the ground since 2014, that tells me we still have a way to go on this thing,” he said.
In terms of pricing, offers from both Korean and Taiwanese producers of unfinished J55 ERW OCTG casing are once again unchanged week-on-week and are still being heard in the approximate range of $27.50-$29.50 cwt. ($606-$650/mt or $550-$590/nt), DDP loaded truck in
US Gulf Coast ports, although numerous SteelOrbis sources have confirmed that interest in offshore futures bookings is very weak.
In terms of domestic market prices,
US domestic mills are still pushing to implement their price increase for J55 ERW OCTG , which would raise spot market prices well beyond the current average range of $42.50-$43.50 cwt. ($937-$959/mt or $850-$870/nt), ex-Midwest mill, but a number of
US buyers say that if they need OCTG casing “it’s a lot cheaper and faster to get it from someone who already has it in stock, since there’s plenty of it still on the ground.”