Although the announcement of a DOC investigation into “illegitimate profiteering” has not made a substantial impact in US domestic wire rod prices just yet, sources say buyers are starting to “feel out” resistance to higher prices. Throughout the last few mill price increase announcements, wire rod buyers in the US have complained about the difficulty in passing those increases onto their own customers. Now that it appears US wire rod mills will start to back off from their recent price uptrend, buyers are gauging mills’ desire for full order books versus higher profit margins.
As a result, most ex-mill transactions are moving closer to the bottom end of the current wire rod spot price range, which is mostly unchanged this week at $40.00-$41.50 cwt. ($800-$830/nt or $882-$915/mt) ex-mill. Larger customers are reportedly eager to get prices back down below the $40.00 cwt. mark, although the success of such efforts remains to be seen.