Although some rumors pointed to a possible announcement regarding the Section 232 investigation results by the end of this week, the latest expectations are for an announcement following the G20 Summit currently taking place in Hamburg, Germany.
“If the announced before, then Trump would have to answer for it in Germany,” one source said. “Obviously that wouldn’t be ideal for him,” considering the expected backlash of investigation results that lead to sweeping steel import tariffs.
Until the results are released, traders tell SteelOrbis that inquiry activity is “dead,” although there are “plenty of positions to be had” at US ports. According to the latest US import license data, wire rod import permits for June totaled 152,873 mt, reflecting virtually no change from May census data. Of the June total, 38,499 mt is from Turkey, with Brazil, Japan and Ukraine accounting for tens of thousands of additional tons. While position inventory tags are relatively similar to current—if inactive—import offers, sources say deals are “hard to come by” considering positions are the only imports available that are not under threat of potential Section 232 tariffs.
For now, the last heard Turkish offers of imported wire rod in the US domestic market remain at $23.50-$24.50 cwt. ($470-$490/nt or $517-$540/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports—unchanged in the last week.