MARKET OVERVIEW

摘要

Probably two of the most prevalent issues of the day in pipe and tube are the economy and the future of oil and gas activity. First, we are going to talk about the economy. With this being an election year and about four years from the start of the recession, there is no shortage of discussion of the economy. We are not going to rehash those issues here. As we've discussed in recent issues, annualizing the 6 month shipment numbers (including licenses and estimates for June), gives us about 21.0 million tons for 2012. This would make 2012 the second best pipe and tube shipment year since the early 1980's surpassed only by 2008. In 2008 the mix of energy and industrial was about 12.1 million tons and 10.3 million tons respectively.