Last week, SteelOrbis reported that about half of the $2.00 cwt. ($40/nt or $44/mt) wire rod price increase for shipments as of October 2 had been absorbed into the US domestic spot market. According to sources, the rest of the increase is likely to be abandoned due to predictions of a scrap price decrease this month. Even though wire rod mills cited rising costs for graphite electrodes in their price increase announcements, comments this week by an executive from GrafTech—a major graphite electrode producer—indicates that prices for the product are “normalizing” after record lows, not necessarily spiking due to the shortage.
Without the leverage of scrap prices, US wire rod mills are reportedly encountering significant pushback on the recent price increase. Further, some sources speculate that if shredded scrap prices drop by as much as $40 per ton as some estimates hold, the recently lifted price range could be vulnerable to deals. For now, while the scrap market is still settling, US domestic wire rod prices are stable this week in the range of $31.00-$32.00 cwt. ($620-$640/nt or $683-$705/mt) ex-mill.