Domestic wire rod offers have increased by approximately $30 /nt ($33 /mt or $1.50 cwt.) in the past week, as part of the price $50 /nt ($55 /mt or $2.50 cwt.) price increase announced by domestic mills earlier this month has started to take hold.
It is likely that the full price increase will be accepted eventually, though so far, only $30 /nt of it has gone through. Domestic low carbon rod offers now range from $34.00 cwt. to $35.00 cwt. ($750 /mt to $772 /mt or $680 /nt to $700 /nt) FOB mill, while high carbon offers now range from $36.50 cwt. to $38.50 cwt. ($805 /mt to $849 /mt or $730 /nt to $770 /nt) FOB mill.
The pricing trend for domestic wire rod remains strongly up, as more price hikes are expected, in order to cover the remainder of the shredded scrap price increases seen in January.
On the import side, traders' offering prices for US customers have not changed in the past week. There is still very little acceptance of the current price levels, but this could change very soon. Future rod contracts out of Turkey, currently the main import rod source offering to the US, have increased yet again. Based on these new numbers, sales prices for Turkish rods would potentially reach a dizzying range of $38.00 cwt to $39.00 cwt. ($838 /mt to $860 /mt or $760 /nt to $780 /nt) for an April/May arrival.
For now, import prices for US customers are as follows: mesh quality wire rod offers range from $35.50 cwt. to $36.50 cwt. ($783 /mt to $805 /mt or $710 /nt to $730 /nt) FOB, loaded truck, in US Gulf ports, while drawing quality offers range from $37.25 cwt. to $38.25 cwt. ($822 /mt to $843 /mt or $745 /nt to $765 /nt) FOB, loaded truck, in US Gulf ports.
License data from the US Import Administration show continued year-on-year decreases in import rod arrivals to the US, particularly from China. In December 2007, the US imported a total of 73,696 mt, compared to 158,047 mt imported in the same month of the previous year. The US' top import sources in December '07 were: Canada, at 33,859 mt; Japan, at 9,528 mt; China, at 9,041 mt (compared to 81,510 mt in December '06); Malaysia, at 7,756 mt; and Brazil, at 4,744 mt.