As scrap price expectations for December remain positive and import wire rod offers to the US maintain at high levels, US domestic wire rod mills have reportedly been aggressive in their attempts to push through the full $2.00 cwt. ($40/nt or $44/mt) wire rod price increase effective today. Sources tell SteelOrbis that many customers “have not been allowed” to pay anything less than $2.00 cwt., while larger customers are settling on transaction prices for $1.00-$1.50 cwt. ($20-$30/nt or $22-$33/mt) more than what they paid in November, depending on the order size.
Further, it appears wire rod buyers are taking full advantage of market optimism to push prices higher downstream—sources say one Midwest fabricator announced it will raise mesh product prices by up to $3.50 cwt. ($70/nt or $77/mt), effective Jan. 1, 2017.
For any wire rod buyers in the US who are not paying the full Dec. 1 increase amount already, sources say “it’s only a matter of time” before full market absorption is achieved, much faster than previous estimates. As such, the new general spot range for US domestic wire rod has widened to $25.00-$27.00 cwt. ($500-$540/nt or $549-$593/mt) ex-mill, reflecting the full $2.00 cwt. price increase on the top end, but only $1.00 cwt. on the low end to account for large customer deals.