US shredded scrap prices have softened slightly and the end user volume remains low. Meanwhile, there was a $60/nt ($3.00 cwt. or $66/mt) price increase announced by wire rod mills for February shipments that have only been partially passed along to customers. However, squeezed by overall increasing raw materials costs, US wire rod producers are still pushing to get the balance of their previously announced price in full and keep the domestic pricing trend still slightly up.
Still, domestic wire rod transaction prices remained the same as last week, with most domestic low carbon offers ranging from $30.00 cwt. to $31.00 cwt. ($661/mt to $683/mt or $600/nt to $620/nt) ex-mill. However, pricing remains flexible for large orders and occasional deals are being made for mesh makers.
In a normal seller’s market, the prices of industrial grade and mesh quality wire rod are virtually identical, but under the current weak sales conditions, most mills have discounted their mesh quality wire rod prices in order to move volume. As a result most mesh quality wire rod offers currently range from $29.00 cwt. to $30.00 cwt. ($639/mt to $661/mt or $580/nt to $600/nt) ex-mill, while industrial grade offers continue to be found in the range of $30.00 cwt. to $31.00 cwt. ($661/mt to $683/mt or $600/nt to $620/nt) ex-mill.
As for imports, most traders continue to offer Turkish rod in the range of $28.50 cwt. to $29.50 cwt. ($628/mt to $650/mt or $570/nt to $590/nt) duty-paid, FOB loaded truck in US Gulf ports. The above price is not generating many bookings; however, with scrap somewhat softening in Turkey, Turkish mills are more willing to negotiate down, as they have not been filling their order books for their traditional export markets. Overall, the import wire rod pricing trend continues to be neutral.
The latest import license data from the US Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA) show that wire rod import permits fell in January from December (preliminary census data), at 72,864 mt and 89,690 mt respectively. However, January imports were up from November final imports, of 58,359 mt.
The top sources of imported wire rod during January were Canada (34,943 mt), the United Kingdom (12,169 mt), Brazil (5,830 mt), Mexico (5,641 mt), and Japan (4,598 mt).
