Average offer prices for ex-China wire rod have edged up slightly over the past week amid the increasing trend in rebar futures prices. This has triggered some optimism in Asia, even though demand conditions are still weak.
Offers for ex-China wire rod from mills have been heard at $480-495/mt FOB, increasing by $5/mt on average compared to December 5, while reference deal prices have been heard at $480-485/mt FOB. This level refers to only mills’ offers, including VAT. At the same time, traders have also increased non-VAT wire rod offers from the lowest levels of $455-465/mt FOB seen last week to $465-470/mt FOB now.
During the given week, Jiangsu Province-based Shagang Group announced that it has kept its offer prices for rebar stable for December 11-20. Meanwhile, since China has stated it will implement a “moderately loose” monetary policy in 2025, changing its monetary policy stance for the first time since 2011, market sentiments have improved, bolstering wire rod prices to a certain degree. However, the demand for wire rod has not seen any significant improvement yet, resulting in a wait-and-see stance prevailing among market players. It is thought that wire rod prices in the Chinese domestic market will likely edge up further in the coming week.
Offer prices of Indonesian wire rod were heard at $485/mt FOB early this week, but at the moment they have returned to $490/mt FOB, while offer prices of ex-Malaysia wire rod have been heard at $500-510/mt FOB.
In the import wire rod market in Southeast Asia, a few deals to the Philippines and Thailand were done at $485-490/mt CFR. At the moment, offers from China have moved to $500/mt CFR at the lowest from mills and to $490/mt CFR from traders for non-VAT cargoes.
As of December 12, rebar futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,428/mt ($456/mt), increasing by RMB 148/mt ($20.6/mt) or 4.5 percent since December 5, while up 0.59 percent compared to the previous trading day, December 11.
$1 = RMB 7.1854