The sentiment in the Southeast Asian wire rod market has weakened further this week, impacted by the negative Chinese market. Average offer prices for ex-China wire rod have fallen sharply amid declining rebar futures prices and decreasing local wire rod prices.
Offers for ex-China wire rod have been heard at $760-780/mt FOB, moving down by $40/mt on average compared to the previous week.
“The continuously declining wire rod prices in the local market weakened market players’ sentiments, while the inventory of wire rod rose slightly week on week, signaling slack demand. Though rebar futures prices saw a big rise of 7.42 percent on November 11, the market is weak,” an international trader said.
The price gap between ex-China wire rod offer prices and ASEAN offer prices has narrowed, which might result in China returning to the ASEAN market in the near future.
This week, imported wire rod prices in Southeast Asia have declined to $715-730/mt CFR Manila, for BOF material from Malaysia and Indonesia, which is down $5-20/mt from a contract last week.
Vietnamese producer Formosa Ha Tinh has rolled over its January delivery local wire rod prices at the level of $791/mt CFR, SteelOrbis learned.