Although overall demand in the US import wire market has not seen substantial improvement in Q1, import arrivals are starting to pick up and resemble levels seen last year, before Section 232 tariffs went into effect. As of March 19, US wire rod import permits for the month have reached 70,564 mt, compared to 62,102 mt in February and 77,609 mt (census data) in March 2018. New sources such as Vietnam and Malaysia are responsible for much of the boost from February, mitigating the decline of imports from Canada—which is historically the top source of US import wire rod but currently burdened by Section 232 tariffs—and Germany, which has only accounted for 2,401 mt of wire rod import permits so far this month.
As for prices, current US import wire rod offers from Germany are unchanged this week at $33.00-$35.00 cwt. ($728-$772/mt or $660-$700/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. Malaysian offers are reportedly on par with German offers, although some sources say prices are slightly higher due to the higher freight costs.