Little has changed in the US import wire rod market in the last week, with prices and demand continuing to trend stable. Sources tell SteelOrbis that the forecast for the market is not likely to change in the near-term.
Offers for imported wire rod in the US domestic market from Germany are still around $36.50 cwt. ($730/nt or $805/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. Egyptian wire rod offers to the US are still trending at $38.00 cwt. ($838/mt or $760/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
The only interesting thing of note in the market is an entry in the latest US steel import data, showing 15,096 mt in wire rod import permits from Australia in the first week of November. Aside from 511 mt in import permits for October and a census total of 74 mt in September, the US has not imported any wire rod from Australia since at least 2010, which is the earliest data available on the US Department of Commerce website. SteelOrbis could not get confirmation about an offer price for the Australian wire rod, but considering that Australia is one of the few countries to be excluded from Section 232 tariffs, the offer prices would likely fall short of German offers.