I’ve spent about as much time reading up on the medium term prospects for the oil market as anyone this past week to try and gauge what the market for steel castings and ductile iron castings is likely to be as we head into 2016 .

A few stories that kind of sum up the picture are:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-tumbles-as-analysts-brace-for-prices-under-40-a-barrel-2015-11-23

http://www.theweek.co.uk/oil-price/60838/oil-price-why-it-could-collapse-to-20-a-barrel

 

The second article is a bit alarmist, but the analyst consensus seems to be that oil will remain weak in the early part of 2016, and maybe rally in Q3.  It seems like the time to hunker down in Houston is now.  I expect more layoffs from the big Houston players to be announced before the end of the year, as I’m sure they won’t want to carry additional staff into 2016.

The drama continues!