SteelOrbis has been informed that Turkish wire rod offers to the export markets have softened by $10/mt during the past week to $445-455/mt FOB. Market sources state that deep sea scrap prices, which have decreased to $270-272/mt CFR this week, are still on the high side and so they need to see further declines in import scrap prices in order to be able to decrease their wire rod prices and be more competitive in the export markets. Meanwhile, occasional wire rod sales of small tonnages by some Turkish producers to the Middle East have been interrupted due to Ramadan. Since Chinese wire rod offers to the Middle East at $340-345/mt FOB are rather attractive, it seems difficult for Turkish producers to compete with Chinese offers to the region.
Meanwhile, Turkish offers to the US for mesh quality wire rod have remained unchanged week on week at $562-584/mt DDP loaded truck US Gulf ports. In the second half of June, local producers in the US wire rod market had raised their sales prices and so inquiries for Turkish wire rod in the US had increased slightly. However, it is stated that US buyers are asking for more discounts from Turkish wire rod producers these days and are trying to increase the downward pressure on Turkish producers' prices by making domestic wire rod bookings.
On the other hand, after the US government's decision to decrease the antidumping duty to 2.13 percent on carbon and alloyed wire rod imports from Mexico in mid-May, Mexican wire rod producers, who had been out of the US market for a while, have started to be active in the US market again. As a result, Turkish producers started to report that they were having difficulties in concluding wire rod sales to the US. Meanwhile, early this week, the US Department of Commerce announced that the antidumping order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Mexico has been cancelled. Thus, market players are wondering if Turkish producers' wire rod sales to the US, their most important wire rod export market, will be interrupted further in the coming period. However, it is thought that Mexican wire rod producers will be more cautious about their pricing policy and their sales volumes in relation to the US market in order to avoid potential antidumping measures.