Despite a surprise mill price decrease announcement two weeks ago, sources tell SteelOrbis they see higher prices on the horizon for the US domestic wire rod market. Prices indeed dropped with the $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt), but the announcement came a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, and now sources say “all bets are off.”
Ukraine is not a significant source of US wire rod imports, but the war has shaken up nearly every sector of the global steel industry, with the immediate result being higher prices, even for flat products that had previously been plunging. Another factor in the US wire rod forecast is higher scrap prices in the US—though the market is still in the process of settling, shredded scrap will likely settle at $50/ton higher than February prices, which gives US wire rod mills incentive to keep prices high or raise them even higher. However, some sources point out that currently high inventory levels in the US wire rod market could mitigate some of the uptrend, as buyers are not desperate for material.
While no mill price increases have been announced so far, some sources believe an announcement “basically retracting” the mid-February decrease is on the horizon. Until then, US domestic wire rod spot prices are unchanged week-on-week in the range of $53.50-$57.00 cwt. ($1,179-$1,257/mt or $1,070-$1,140/nt) ex-mill.