Turkish producers' offers for both mesh quality and drawing quality wire rod to the export markets have remained unchanged over the past week and are still at $600-605/mt FOB and $615-620/mt FOB, respectively. Demand for ex-Turkey wire rod in the Middle Eastern market has been on the weak side over the same period due to Ramadan and cheaper ex-China offers.
Since last month, US buyers had postponed their wire rod purchases from Turkey due to expectations for a softening trend in scrap prices and their own satisfactory wire rod stock levels. However, market sources state that US buyers may restart their buying activities as scrap prices have started to increase.
Meanwhile, Turkish mesh quality wire rod export offers to the US are at $630-640/mt CFR FO US Gulf ports. Additionally, Chinese wire rod stocks in the US market are nearly exhausted, which is good news for Turkish producers. The US Department of Commerce's finding of subsidization in the wire rod imports from Chinese producers and exporters has ended Chinese wire rod producers' hopes of reentering the US market. The final determination in the US antidumping case against Chinese wire rod imports will be announced on August 29.