OCTG tags slide in Dec., rally expected in 1st qtr.

Dec 29, 2006 | 01:04 PM | Sam Kusic

Spot prices for oil country tubular goods (OCTG) declined again in December, hitting a one-year low, but market sources said they expect the slide to stop and prices to rally in the first quarter.

"Inventories are still pretty high," one distributor in the Southwest said, pointing out that import levels are up, thus adding to overstocking at the distributor level. That oversupply has helped push prices downward.

According to preliminary figures for November from the U.S. Census Bureau, 150,585 tonnes of OCTG were shipped to the United States, a 33-percent increase compared with 113,215 tonnes imported in November 2005.....





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