According to market sources, mesh quality
wire rod offers from
Turkey to the export markets have decreased by $5/mt over the past week to the range of $590-605/mt FOB, while prices vary depending on tonnage volumes.
Lately, demand for Turkish
wire rod has been slack in the US, which is the main export market for Turkish
wire rod producers. US buyers have been asking Turkish producers to lower their
wire rod prices against the backdrop of decreasing scrap prices. Additionally, Turkish producers currently prefer to use Chinese billets for production instead of scrap, with Chinese billet being significantly cheaper than current billet prices in the market. Accordingly, US buyers argue that Turkish mills' production costs have decreased and so they expect reasonable discounts before concluding any deals.
However, boosted by their position as the most important
wire rod supplier to the US, Turkish producers have refused to lower their prices as they believe demand in the US market will increase. For now, ex-
Turkey wire rod offers to the US are in the range of $625-645/mt CFR FO in US Gulf ports.
On the other hand, market sources report that Turkish producers have concluded transactions for small tonnages to North Africa and
Europe over the past two weeks.