THE STAINLESS PIPE AND TUBE MARKET

摘要

Market shipments held flat for themonth in what we believe is a waninginfluence from the energy sector. To someextent, we expected better as completionsare holding on even as the rig count hasfallen but this has not been the case. Not toblame it all on energy as other sectors haveweakened in an economy that is strugglingto deliver real demand. The mature natureof this cycle in the US economy is justanother factor that suggests that peakdemand for stainless is behind us at leastfor now. In the Line Pipe section of thisReport we commented on the abundance ofnatural gas that has resulted in significantflaring, increasing LNG and pipeline exportsand the US’s leadership role in natural gasproducts. In fact, natural gas deliveries toU.S. LNG facilities for export set a monthlyrecord in July, averaging 6.0 billion cubicfeet per day (Bcf/d)—7% of the total U.S.dry natural gas production—according todata from OPIS PointLogic Energy. In thefirst seven months of 2019, natural gasfeedstock deliveries to LNG export facilitieshave been the fastest growing among allU.S. natural gas consumption sectors.