Although some offshore wire rod mills have tried to raise prices, the price trend in the US domestic wire rod market is still pointing in a decidedly downward direction.
Wire rod suppliers in China have upwardly adjusted their offers to the US since last week due to a recent up-tick in China's domestic wire rod market. However, these new offers are not gaining any traction in the US market, where local wire rod prices are expected to follow scrap prices downward in the coming weeks.
Despite the slight increase in Chinese mill asking prices since last week, most traders continue to offer Chinese origin mesh-grade wire rod at a range of $25.00 cwt. to $26.00 cwt. ($551/mt to $573/mt or $500/nt to $520/nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports. Even at this price, there are very few reported bookings.
Import sales prices for Turkish-origin material are also generally stable from last week (despite one Turkish mill raising their offer prices) with most offers still ranging from approximately $25.50 cwt. to $26.50 cwt. ($562/mt to $584/mt or $510/nt to $530/nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
Overall, since last week, the pricing trend for import wire rod has shifted from slightly down, to neutral. Although suppliers are starting to ask for more, the market in the US is such that buyers are unwilling to accept any increases right now.
Domestically, there have been no official price decreases made by any mills, and US producers are doing their best to keep prices steady despite the soft demand. Still, buyers report that there are special deals to be had for large orders, and there is a general expectation in the market that domestic rod offer prices will come down this month along with scrap prices. Therefore, while the price range of most offers is unchanged since last week, the price trend for domestic wire rod remains down.
For now, most domestic offers for low carbon material continue to range from approximately $28.50 cwt. to $29.50 cwt. ($628/mt to $650/mt or $570/nt to $590/nt) ex-mill.
The one bright spot for the US market in recent months has been that import volumes remain low as does overall supply in the market. However, as mentioned last week, imports did make a minor resurgence in October, led by Turkey. License data collected through November 3 show a total of 106,205 mt of wire rod imported in October, marking the highest monthly level this year and the first time wire rod imports have breached the 100,000 mt mark since October of last year. Top import sources in October 2009 were: Turkey, 39,124 mt; Canada, 31,276 mt; and Italy, 11,164 mt.