October, 2008

The instability in the welding fitting and flange business and the steel industry over the past ten months had made us all edgy. The last few weeks of volatility in the stock market has resulted in great losses of money in our banking system, but more importantly, tremendous losses of money by individual investors. I don't think any of us have experienced anything like this before. I'm sure most of our parents and/or grandparents have not seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930's, but as my father always said, "This, too, shall pass."

Seamless pipe still seems to be in short supply for fittings, with one of the major pipe makers raising their prices this past October 1st.  We still do not have a steady flow of seamless pipe for some sizes.

The oil and gas industries worldwide remain strong, with big projects still on the books and others getting started right now. In the United States, gas companies are scrambling to get seamless pipe for the new gas find in the Louisiana area. I have been told that supplies could be tighter for seamless pipe in 2009 than in 2008. Speculation is that there could be another seamless pipe price increase around the end of the year. We will see what happens.

While flange availability remains tight, the one ray of light we have seen is that billet for flanges has dropped in price because of the sharp decline in the price of scrap. The price of billet has dropped 12-15% in Europe and although it has not yet dropped quite that much in the United States, we have gotten some relief from some of our forging suppliers.

Weldbend has always tried to be fair with our customers, charging only what we need to make a fair return on our product, and by giving our customers time to place orders when prices are going up. Because of the price drop of billet, we want to be the first to pass this savings on flanges only to our customers. Our new Price Sheet 1008-I goes into effect on October 20, 2008, and will be effective on all orders at time of shipment. This price sheet can be viewed at www.weldbend.com. If there is any additional significant drop in our billet prices, we hope to be able to pass the savings on to you.

James J. Coulas, Jr.
President

You can depend on Weldbend!

www.weldbend.com