SteelOrbis has been informed that Chinese mills’ wire rod export offer prices have moved sideways over the past week at $460-470/mt FOB. “Due to the New Year holiday in China and the global market, prices for wire rod have moved sideways,” a trader said.
Offers for Malaysia-origin wire rod have been heard at $480/mt CFR Philippines, the same level compared to the previous week.
During the given week, Jiangsu Province-based Shagang Group, China’s largest private steelmaker, has held its offer prices stable for rebar, high-speed wire rod and bar-in-coil, signaling its positive view of the future prospects for the market as traders will build up stocks ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday and also as the People's Bank of China (PBC) has decided to lower the required reserve ratio for financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points as of January 6.
As of Thursday, January 2, rebar futures at the Shanghai Future Exchange are standing at RMB 3,547/mt ($509.5/mt), increasing by RMB 18/mt ($2.6/mt) or 0.5 percent since December 26.
$1 = RMB 6.9614