Posted on 01 Apr 2019
US oil country tubular goods pricing failed to budge in the week ended 29 March, Kallanish understands.
Kallanish held representative product P110 domestic welded casing at $1,300-1,350/short ton, where it has been relatively steady over the past several weeks due to lacklustre business conditions. Kallanish prices are ex-works, domestic mill.
A Gulf Coast trader says pricing will likely remain moribund until well into the second quarter.
A second Gulf Coast trader says all energy pipe is currently suffering as the market endures a cyclical down phase. Domestic line pipe prices – which have been trending down for months, according to observer Pipe Logix – hit an average of $2,074/st in February at the distributor level.
The most recent Baker Hughes rig count again registered double-digit drops for both the US and Canada. Canada is now in the red on year, and the US rig count is only up by 13 rigs for the same time period (see related article).
The trader adds that a new trend appears to be developing in the energy market at large. The large swings that have long characterised the energy pipe business appear to have become increasingly moderate since about 2007.
"Since the record 2004 to 2008 [... rig count uptick] of 77 months, the four following up-ticks in activity have decreased with each trend change," he says. "One could say that maybe the historical volatile ups and downs are now more ripples, reflecting a more stable industry."
