Spot market prices for US domestic HSS tubing are still trending in the range of $82.75-$84.75 cwt. ($1,824-$1,868/mt or $1,655-$1,695/nt), FOB mill, however, some sources question whether prices could trend higher.
“We’ve heard that the mills could put out another price increase if flat rolled goes up more, but for now, hot rolled seems to be stable,” a source said. “At this point we’re trying to be cautious with our inventory to some degree, and we’re not buying more than a couple of weeks [stock] at a time.”
Another source agreed.
“I’ve been doing this for a real long time and prices like what we’re seeing now, I’ve never seen it before,” he said. “The big question is how much of the price increases we’ve seen in the past year will be permanent.”