November 2011 | Welded steel tube & pipe
US pipe and tube mills pin hopes on flat-roll price increases: Americas Market Analysis
Often HSS mills are the first to follow flat-rolled steel price hikes, but this time they held off doing so until this week when Atlas Tube, Bull Moose Tube, Independence Tube, Leavitt Tube and Welded Tube of Canada announce a $50/ton hike.
The US steel pipe and tube market continues to be divided with OCTG and DOM, and to some degree small diameter line pipe, on the stronger side of the spectrum, while hollow structural sections, standard pipe and large diameter line pipe remain on the other weaker side. MBR believes that HSS and standard pipe are unlikely to see any measurable strengthening until there is an improvement in building and construction activity. All tubulars, however, have been affected by the caution promulgated by uncertainty about the future directions of the domestic, and global, economies. Still pipe and tube mills are hoping to ride on the coattails of recently announced raw material price increases, which MBR thinks is possible for OCTG and DOM, assuming that the flat-rolled steel price hikes themselves are accepted by the market at a time when consumer confidence remains quite weak.
Often HSS mills are the first to...
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