While trade negotiations continue with Mexico and the EU, the US import wire rod market continues to trend steady-to-slow at the official close of the summer season. For now, Section 232 tariffs are still in place for most major sources of import wire rod, with the exception of Brazil’s quota arrangement. Current offers for imported wire rod in the US domestic market from Brazil are still in the range of $35.00-$36.00 cwt. ($700-$720/nt or $772-$794/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, unchanged in the last week.
Import offers are trending stable elsewhere, with offers for imported wire rod in the US domestic market from Germany still around $36.50 cwt. ($730/nt or $805/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, and offers from Greece still ranging from $36.00-$37.00 cwt. ($720-$740/nt or $794-$816/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
One interesting development in the US import wire rod market is a “surprise” arrival of Turkish wire rod at US ports—according to the latest US import data, Turkey accounted for 36,535 mt of wire rod import permits in August, marking the first monthly tonnage to surpass 1,000 mt tons in over a year. The question on US wire rod buyers’ minds, however, is how much—if any—of that Turkish wire rod came in before Donald Trump doubled the Section 232 tariffs against Turkey. If the wire rod arrived prior to Aug. 13, sources say it could present an “interesting” alternative to other import choices, but if the wire rod arrived afterward, sources say it will be “virtually unsellable with a 50 percent tariff.”