Wire rod prices have remained mostly stable in the Italian market over the past month, but this situation is going to change, according to market sources. Currently, drawing quality wire rod prices are at €520-530/mt ($614-625/mt) delivered to customer, i.e., stable compared to one week ago, and until lately domestic demand was relatively slack due to the approaching Christmas holidays especially for December output. However, with order books for December now full, in the last few days Italian producers have recorded a significant revival in demand for January output. For this reason, they are thinking of increasing their prices by €20-30/mt for January deliveries, also due to the recent increase in scrap prices and the lack of competitiveness of import wire rod offers. According to sources, domestic wire rod prices will definitely increase in the first month of 2018, reaching at least €540/mt ($637/mt) delivered to customer.
€1 = $1.18