Slower activity in southern European wire rod market due to holidays

Looking at the European wire rod markets, in this week's Bulgarian domestic market wire rod prices have followed a sideways trend due to slack demand, remaining at BGN 980-990/mt ($670-677/mt) CPT. In the meantime, ex-CIS low carbon wire rod offers to Bulgaria have increased in line with Turkish mills' export offers, rising to €490-495/mt ($655-662/mt) CIF on actual weight basis, for January deliveries.
 
Since Italy and Spain have mostly been on holiday this week, southern European mills' wire rod export offers are expected gain clarity next week. In general, southern European mills are expected to increase their offers to some extent before the New Year.
 
On the other hand, in the Pakistani market boron-added mesh quality wire rod offers given from China stand at $675-685/mt CIF, for late December and January shipments. In the meantime, in the Pakistani market high carbon (C62-72) boron-added wire rod offers given from Thailand and Malaysia stand at $780-785/mt CIF, while similar material is being offered from China at $750-760/mt CIF, both for late December and January shipments. Although wire rod demand is quiet in general in Pakistan, buyers are more interested in Chinese offers, which are more competitive than offers from Malaysia and Thailand.