With supplies continuing to tighten, US
wire rod producers have pushed up their numbers by about another $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) in the past week. However, there is still little interest in import offers.
Most low carbon domestic
wire rod offers now range from approximately $28.00 cwt. to $29.00 cwt. ($617 /mt to $639 /mt or $560 /nt to $580 /nt) ex-mill. Mills say that sales are good and that Canadian producers are faring even better. Still, large buyers may be able to get slightly better deals.
Although US
wire rod demand is still weak, it is improving slightly with the economic conditions, and this, in combination with the tight supplies due to low domestic
production and lack of imports and a modest increase in US
scrap prices in August, is contributing to a slightly upward price trend for US
wire rod.
Meanwhile, import
wire rod offers fore the US have also risen since last week, with most offers of mesh-quality rod from
Turkey now ranging from approximately $26.00 cwt. to $27.00 cwt. ($573 /mt to $595 /mt or $520 /nt to $540 /nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports. However, the price difference between import and domestic offers is not wide enough to encourage many import bookings, especially as buyers remain cautious about the market recovery. Import prices are likely to continue to rise further within the next couple weeks though as Turkish mills raise their offers in conjunction with the rising
scrap and
billet prices in the region.
US import licenses for July recorded only 34,467 mt of
wire rod imported in the month, with most of it coming from
Canada (24,710 mt).
Japan and the United Kingdom also accounted for some tons, though only 7,111 mt and 1,017 mt respectively. The July import total is down by about 60 percent from the year-ago total of 85,280 mt.