With few inquiries and tepid buying activity within the US import wire rod market, buyers are largely scoffing at the surge in global wire rod prices that have lifted import wire rod offers in some cases beyond US domestic offers. Once the most recent US domestic wire rod price increase absorbs into the market, prices will be close to $35.00 cwt. ($772/mt or $700/nt) ex-mill, and yet due to what one source describes as domestics’ “slow catch-up to global prices,” import offers are in the “same sphere” as domestics, and in some cases higher.
As such, US import wire rod offers from Germany are now being heard in an extremely wide range of $34.00-$37.00 cwt. ($750-$816/mt or $680-$740/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, although pegging a “true” price is difficult considering “actual bookings are pretty much nonexistent,” another source said.