North American seamless mechanical tube maker Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes wants to reestablish higher mill prices this spring after months of market-driven price tags.
The Houston-based tube maker plans to increase base transaction prices on carbon steel seamless mechanical tubes by an average $100/ton with May deliveries. The firm also wants to boost alloy steel grades by $150/ton. Purchasingdata.com reports that mechanical tubing transaction prices averaged $980/ton in the first several months of 2005 before beginning a decline that settled into a second-half average of $837. This shows that substantial price increase announcements in the summer of last year were generally ignored by buyers. Note that buyers reported a January 2006 price of $834.