After weeks of extreme flexibility in the US domestic wire rod market, mills announced a variety of sharp price cuts this week for March shipments due to the dual pressures of downtrending import offers and dramatic cuts in scrap prices. Nucor slashed prices by $3.50 cwt. ($70/nt or $77/mt) while Gerdau went for a more moderate $2.00 cwt. ($40/nt or $44/mt). Gerdau has not formally revised its pricing as it usually does in such cases of mill divergence, but sources say they will likely defer to Nucor’s announcement upon customer request. Order activity has virtually dried up in the interim with no one wanting to pay pre-decrease prices, but that doesn’t mean last week’s spot price range of $30.00-$31.00 cwt. ($600-$620/nt or $661-$683/mt) ex-mill is still available. Mills might try to negotiate orders this week and next week for something a bit above post-decrease prices, but for the most part, sources tell SteelOrbis spots have already settled into the new range of $26.50-$27.50 cwt. ($530-$550/nt or $584-$606/mt) ex-mill.
Considering the plunge in US domestic wire rod prices, traders have found difficulty getting bites for reduced import offers from Turkey. Sales prices dropped again this week into the range of $24.50-$25.50 cwt. ($490-$510/nt or $540-$562/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, down $1.50 cwt. ($30/nt or $33/mt) since last week. With US demand for wire rod—domestic and import—weak as it is, traders are concerned that import offers will have to regain their previously-wide margin against domestics in order to boost booking activity.