THE STAINLESS PIPE AND TUBE MARKET

摘要

Despite the fact that year-to-dateshipping volumes remain solidly above lastyear’s level, we have to say we are just a bitconcerned as economic conditions slow - orshould we say level off - and many of theend use markets are in some degree of flux.The oil and gas market is steady but is notcurrently the growing machine we saw latelast year and earlier this year. In part, thisleads us to the expectation that neithervolume or price will be favorable indicatorsfor the fourth quarter. That said, lookingahead, we do continue to monitor strengthin the gas processing sector of thebusiness. There are other signs as well.Recent strong gas prices suggest that theremay be more gas wells in the future thatrequire gathering, completion andcompression equipment that all havecomponents of stainless within. Second, thedrilling story is growing beyond the Permianand other basins create needs beyondcurrent levels of usage. Product mix shouldchange just a bit and that will require somenew purchasing habits.