Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/752472
sions mark a historic moment. It is the first time in history where duties are imposed on cold-rolled, hot-rolled, and corrosion-resistant steel products simultaneously. These duties affect those who manu- facture, supply, and purchase steel pipe in the groundwater industry. According to industry members, the demand for steel right now is down. Au- tomotive is losing its steam, energy has dropped dramatically, agriculture is soft, and commercial construction is improv- ing, but slowly. This affects steel pro- ducers all over the world as lower demand tends to drive prices down. Pipe manufacturers in the United States often purchase hot-rolled steel from both foreign and domestic produc- ers. They will purchase a portion of their needs as foreign coil which has to be lower priced to offset the risk from extended lead times (often 90 days, where domestic producers tend to run 30 days or less). They will purchase a certain amount of domestic-produced coil as well. The mix is determined by the size of the price gap between the two. What tends to happen when duties are put into place on foreign coil is foreign mills are forced to raise their prices. This allows domestic steel pro- ducers to subsequently raise their prices as well. The pipe producers will then pass on the increased costs to their cus- tomers, resulting in higher domestic pipe costs. Looking ahead to 2017, most in the industry see more of the same: anemic demand with excess supply keeping prices down. Buyers are currently holding off until the last minute on purchases and keep- ing inventories low as they are not confident the prices have hit bottom. Sometime in the fourth quarter of 2016 and going into next year's first quarter, buyers will be forced to replenish inven- tories for 2017. This will cause pricing to move up, based on the increased de- mand (a pattern that has occurred sev- eral times over the last few years), only to see prices slide back down later in 2017. The hope is the market will improve, but no one seems to know what will bring that about. Top 10 Violations of 2016 Announced by OSHA A preliminary list of the 10 most common safety violations for 2016 compiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was announced October 18 at the 2016 National Safety Council Congress and Expo in Anaheim, California. Two categories, machine guarding and electrical general requirements, switched places between 2015 and 2016. Machine guarding violations moved up to take eighth place. All other categories retained the same placement they had in 2015. 1. Fall protection 6929 violations (§1926.501) 2. Hazard communication 5677 violations (§1910.1200) 3. Scaffolding 3906 violations (§1926.451) 4. Respiratory protection 3585 violations (§1910.134) 5. Lockout/tagout 3414 violations (§1910.147) NEWS from page 12 waterwelljournal.com 14 December 2016 WWJ