Despite mills' attempts to raise prices a month ago, Mexico's domestic long product prices have fallen since last week, as weak demand continues to take a heavy toll on the market.
Buyers of rebar in Mexico report that producers have issued new pricing which puts most domestic rebar offers at about Peso 8,000 to 8,200/mt (US$589 to $603/mt), delivered, plus taxes. This compares to a price range of Peso 8,200 to 8,400/mt last week.
Meanwhile, Mexico's domestic low carbon wire rod market is reportedly even weaker than the rebar market, with most domestic low carbon wire rod offers now ranging from approximately 8,200/mt to 8,400/mt (US$603 to $618/mt) delivered, plus taxes. This range is down by about Peso 300/mt (US$20/mt) since last week, when most offers ranged from Peso 8,500 to 8,800/mt.
Mexico's domestic longs prices have also declined even more sharply since last week on a dollar basis, due to further depreciation of the Mexican peso against the USD.
In late August, Mexican longs mills attempted to raise rebar prices to Peso 8,700/mt and wire rod to Peso 9,000/mt but these attempts proved unsuccessful.
All in all, in spite of some supply and scrap-driven up-ticks seen in Mexico's longs markets earlier this year, Mexican longs have seen very soft demand in the last couple months and Mexico's longs are projected to take a longer time to recover than the market of their neighbor to the north. Still, many companies are hopeful that construction activity in Mexico will start to trend up in early 2010 and bolster the longs market in turn.
The latest figures on Mexico's construction data still show a downward trend, with a report issued by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) this week indicating that domestic construction activity declined in July from June.