European wire rod market to gain clarity this week

Looking at the European wire rod markets, in last week's Bulgarian domestic market wire rod prices improved slightly on the back of mills' upward price adjustment attempts, with the price of mesh quality wire rod reaching BGN 1,000-1,010/mt ($653-659/mt) CPT. However, Bulgarian buyers have adopted a wait-and-see stance towards this price update.
 
After the Christmas and New Year holidays, Spanish mills' mesh quality wire rod export offers have been at €525-530/mt ($670-676/mt) FOB. However, in Turkey, one of the Spanish mills' export markets, buyers are not expected to show much interest in this offer price level, due to the longer lead times and additional freight costs involved for Spanish material.
 
The European wire rod market is expected to gain more clarity this week, since most market players will return to the market in the current week.