The situation in the Southeast Asian wire rod market has remained very difficult with low demand and bearish sentiments prevailing. Chinese traders have managed to sell some small tonnages of wire rod at the low prices they had voiced last week, though average offer prices for ex-China wire rod from mills have remained stable over the past week.
Some deals for ex-China wire rod have been done at $605-610/mt CFR Manila over the past week, stable from the lowest offers seen last week. Most market sources believe that these prices could be provided only by traders performing non-VAT trading.
Offer prices of ex-Indonesia and ex-Malaysia wire rod have been heard at $630-650/mt CFR, ASEAN, while traders in the region have been suspicious of the demand recovery.
Ex-China wire rod prices from private mills have been heard at $620-630/mt FOB, moving sideways compared to March 23.
“During the given week, wire rod prices in the Chinese domestic market have indicated a rebounding trend following the previous big declines. Market players have been optimistic as regards the future prospects for the wire rod market as they believe demand will improve in the traditional peak season of April. The weather in northern China has been improving, which has exerted a positive impact on construction activities. It is thought that wire rod prices may edge up further in the coming period,” an international trader said.
As of Thursday, March 30, rebar futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 4,167/mt ($605/mt), increasing by RMB 97/mt ($14.1/mt) or up 2.4 percent since March 23, while rising by 0.53 percent compared to the previous trading day (March 29).
$1 = RMB 6.8886