Although Turkish mills are reportedly eager to push up import wire rod offers to the US, prices have remained stable for the second week in a row in the range of $32.00-$33.00 cwt. ($640-$660/nt or $705-$727/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. Traders tell SteelOrbis that demand levels are not strong enough to justify an increase, but Turkish mills are pointing to recent price increases in the US market (for wire rod and wire mesh) as evidence that higher import offers are not that unreasonable.
However, as sources in the US domestic wire rod market know, the rod increase was virtually ignored while the mesh increase has only seen minimal acceptance in the week since its announcement, and neither is justification for increasing import offers, which is why some traders are planning to keep import prices in the US stable even if the overseas uptrend continues. US domestic spot prices, meanwhile, are similarly stable, still in the unchanged range of $32.50-$33.50 cwt. ($650-$670/nt or $717-$739/mt) ex-mill.