While Turkish export rebar offers to the US specifically took a breather from the recent sharp uptrend, wire rod offers from Turkey are continuing to rise, although traders tell SteelOrbis that they are skeptical about such price levels holding. As such, while Turkish wire rod CFR offers are up $10/mt this week, sales prices in the US are stable at $21.00-$22.00 cwt. ($420-$440/nt or $463-$485/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports—unchanged in the last week.
The main obstacle in import wire rod’s uptrend appears to be demand—the success of recent US domestic wire rod price increases is based on rising scrap prices, source say, and not a significant uptick in demand. But while US mills might “get away with higher prices,” sources say import offers are not seeing the same level of acceptance, and most import transactions taking place right now are for available position tons that were booked months ago at lower prices.