Because of continued weak business, US domestic wire rod offering prices have come down on balance by approximately $0.50 cwt. ($11 /mt or $10 /nt) in the past few weeks, though no official decrease was announced.
Most domestic low carbon offers now range from $28.50 cwt. to $29.50 cwt. ($628 /mt to $650 /mt or $570 /nt to $590 /nt) FOB mill, while high carbon offers now range from $31.00 cwt. to $32.00 cwt. ($683 /mt to $705 /mt or $620 /nt to $640 /nt) FOB mill.
Sources say that big buyers are able to get special deals even below this range, and that in general, mills are open to price negotiations for decent tonnage.
Meanwhile, Chinese rod mills still haven't lowered their offering prices for the US, and there are no indications that they will soon come down with prices. China's home market for wire rod is showing signs of stabilizing, with its domestic prices rising slightly in recent weeks, though prices are still at relatively low levels. Since the Chinese domestic rod market is improving, Chinese mills are not too desperate for US orders and are therefore not interested in lowering prices.
Still, there is not a great amount of wire rod demand from anywhere in the world, and no strong recovery in import rod prices is expected. However, Asian ocean freight rates have been rising, adding additional cost to the Chinese rod delivered price, which is above market expectations to begin with.
Despite higher freight rates out of China, imported rod offers have not changed since last week, with import mesh grade wire rod offers continuing to range from $28.25 cwt. to $29.25 cwt. ($623 /mt to $645 /mt or $565 /nt to $585 /nt) FOB, loaded truck, in US Gulf ports. Import offers for drawing quality rods still range from $30.00 cwt. to $31.00 cwt. ($661 /mt to $683 /mt or $600 /nt to $620 /nt) FOB, loaded truck, in US Gulf ports.