Average offer prices in the Asian wire rod market have remained stable over the past week amid only slight changes in rebar futures prices in China.
Offers for ex-China wire rod have been heard at $490-505/mt FOB, moving sideways on average compared to October 31. Demand for wire rod has slackened in the global market, exerting a negative impact on prices. There have been sufficient orders for Chinese mills in the given week and so they have been unwilling to sell at lower prices and have mostly kept their offer prices stable. Rebar futures prices have edged up slightly, also affecting wire rod prices in the spot market. The meeting of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) will end on November 8, and this has caused a wait-and-see stance among market players as they have been waiting for supportive policies. It is thought that wire rod prices in the Chinese domestic market will move sideways in the coming week.
Offer prices of Indonesian wire rod have been heard at $500/mt FOB, edging down by $5/mt compared to last week, but in general this has not been assessed as a decline since a week ago a deal to the local market was already reported at this level. Offer prices of ex-Malaysia wire rod have been heard at $515/mt FOB, remaining unchanged.
In Southeast Asia’s import market, the tradable level is still at $520/mt CFR, but buyers are still looking for $500-510/mt CFR.
As of November 7, rebar futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,436/mt ($481/mt), increasing by RMB 9/mt ($1.3/mt) or 0.3 percent since October 31, while up 1.03 percent compared to the previous trading day, November 6.
$1 = RMB 7.1659
