THE STAINLESS PIPE AND TUBE MARKET

摘要

While we don’t expect do to an earlyrevision on the stainless forecast we see theyear off to a slow start versus the jump outof the box experience we had in January2018. Given the import market share in thissector, it is there we see the weakness.Keep in mind, however, that we don’t havefinal December data which is usually aslower month, and January licenses areaverage. It is possible that some licenseswere missed with the partial shutdown soperhaps January will end up higher whenfinally reported. Either way, it warrantswatching. Our forecast has a modestgrowth factor built in and potentially the topmarket – Energy - will underdeliver indemand. We’ve revised our OCTG forecastdownward by about 10% which could havean effect on this sector despite the fact thatchemical processing and LNG remainstrong.