Although downtrending raw material prices in Turkey have continued to put pressure on finished steel prices, import wire rod offers to the US from Turkey have remained relatively stable this week due to limited interest in booking orders. Traders tell SteelOrbis “there isn’t much incentive” to get aggressive with offers, because even lower prices “aren’t enough to spark interest.”
Sources say US wire rod buyers are primarily sticking to the US domestic wire rod market, where the latest mill-announced price increase (scheduled to go into effect February 1) was largely ignored. US domestic wire rod mills are reportedly open to negotiation, and even though the current margin between US domestic spot prices and import offers is relatively wide, faster lead times and smaller minimum order sizes with US mills fit better with US wire rod buyers’ current strategy of filling inventory holes and not stocking up too much.