In the Turkish domestic wire rod market, a wait-and-see policy has been observed this week ahead of the Feast of Sacrifice holiday. End-users have been buying only in line with their needs due to the lack of stability of wire rod producers' offer prices. Finished product producers have decided not to fill their stocks before the holiday, mainly since the weak demand in the Turkish domestic market is expected to continue until the New Year.
Although the Turkish wire rod producers' export offers have remained at $480-500/mt FOB, the export markets are quiet in general. In particular, the mesh grade wire rod price range in the Italian domestic market is €315-330/mt delivered to customer; however, demand is still weak in this country. Thus, it is becoming more difficult to conclude ex-Turkey wire rod deals to Italy. Also, it is mentioned that some Italian market players may extend their holidays (due to start on December 20) for a total of three or four weeks. This situation will also gain clarity in the upcoming days.
In the US wire rod market, similar to the slackness in Turkey (caused by the Feast of Sacrifice holiday), sluggishness is observed due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday. While negotiations for ex-Turkey wire rod deals to the US are still heard, it is expected that such negotiations will gain speed after the holidays.
In the Middle East wire rod market, a similar holiday atmosphere is being observed. Although mesh quality wire rod has this week been offered to the local market in Dubai at $500-510/mt ex-works, Chinese origin boron-added wire rod export offers to this region have this week been at $480-490/mt CFR Dubai for January shipment. No great interest is being shown in these prices, also in consideration of the shipment date. Wire rod demand in general is weak in this country for the time being.
Overall, it can be said that there has been an increase in sluggishness in the international market, also due to the fact that wire rod demand from the Far East to Turkey has slowed down under the influence of China.