Although harsh winter weather has gripped the East Coast and Midwest and slowed down end-use activities and thus demand for US domestic wire rod, spot prices have largely remained stagnant in the range of $34.00-$35.00 cwt. ($680-$700/nt or $750-$772/mt) ex-mill. Prices might be vulnerable, but purchasing activity is so low that any reported transactions do not amount to a great enough market sample to adjust the general range. However, sources tell SteelOrbis that while mills might be able to push the higher end of the range on smaller customers, most customers looking to book any sort of tonnage have incredible leverage right now, and even medium-sized wire product producers have been heard to book near the lower end of the range.
As for imports, Turkish wire rod offers are still mulling an uptrend, although prices haven’t officially moved from last week’s range of $30.50-$31.50 cwt. ($610-$630/nt or $672-$694/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. However, some traders believe that the Turkish wire rod mills, which have an excellent opportunity to capture the market share left behind by the trade-case beleaguered Chinese, might be squandering this opportunity with excessively-high price ideas.