The stabilization of Chinese wire rod prices has resulted in little movement in the Asian import market. However, this week low-priced offers from India have appeared in the market.
SteelOrbis has been informed that a cargo of Indian wire rod has been offered to Southeast Asia, to the Philippines in particular, at $465-470/mt CFR, while there have been no reports of whether a deal has been done, but most market participants agree that this was the most attractive price in the market.
Offers for Malaysia-origin wire rod have been heard at the same level as last week, at about $475/mt CFR Southeast Asia, with some tonnage being sold to South Korea at this level.
Chinese export offer prices for wire rod from mills have been at $460-470/mt FOB on Thursday, November 28, the same as a week ago. Though Chinese mills were making attempts to increase prices by $10/mt early this week, they have faced resistance from buyers and, even though some producers are offering at $475/mt FOB at the moment, this level is assessed as not workable by most sources. “Local wire rod prices moved sideways: thereby ex-China wire rod offer prices have also been stable [compared to last week],” a trader said.
However, sentiment in the local Chinese market has started to slacken following previous sharp rises, which will exert a negative impact on the wire rod market in the coming period.
As of Thursday, November 28, rebar futures at the Shanghai Future Exchange are standing at RMB 3,618/mt ($514.9/mt), almost stable compared to November 21, while they had posted sharp drops on Tuesday and Wednesday.
$1 = RMB 7.027