Despite a strong attempt this week to push US domestic wire rod prices higher—mills announced a $2.00 cwt. ($40/nt or $44/mt) price increase for shipments as of Oct. 2—certain import wire rod prices are following an opposite trend. In Turkey, lower billet and scrap prices have put pressure on their export wire rod offers, and sales prices in the US have dropped by about $0.50 cwt. ($10/nt or $11/mt) as a result.
Turkish offers of imported wire rod in the US domestic market are now ranging from $27.00-$28.00 cwt. ($540-$560/nt or $595-$617/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, and traders tell SteelOrbis that they expect interest to pick up once US domestic mills start “aggressively pushing their increase through.” However, other sources doubt the chances of the full increase absorbing into the market, and as such do not believe the domestic trend will have a significant influence on import booking activity.