While US domestic high carbon wire rod mills followed the announced neutral price policies of other long products (despite weakening scrap prices) their grip on the spot market is slipping. Before scrap prices officially settled this month, mills were able to bump spot prices for 1050/1060 grade high carbon up $0.25 cwt. ($5/nt or $5.50/mt) into the range of $34.50-$35.50 ($690-$710/nt or $761-$783/mt) ex-mill, based on decent demand and little to no competition from imports.
However, they were unable to do the same with 1070/1080 grade prices, which remained in the range of $37.25-$38.25 cwt. ($745-$765/nt or $821-$843/mt) ex-mill for 1070/1080 grade--that is, until customers started to point to predictions of yet another scrap downtrend in April. Spot prices for the higher grade are now down about $0.25 cwt., but sources say this is only the beginning--customers will have the leverage to chip away at spots for both grades of high carbon wire rod until scrap prices neutralize (or demand rises substantially), but the decreases will be relatively minor.