After US domestic wire rod mills began backing off their aggressive price uptrend in recent weeks, a number of other factors have conspired to give buyers the upper hand in negotiations with mills. Sources tell SteelOrbis that buyers have “had enough” of “overpriced” material, considering they have plenty of inventory that was purchased early in the price uptrend of the last several months, and import offers are still available beneath US domestic offers, despite the Section 232 tariffs.
As such, sources report deals of up to $1.00 cwt. ($20/nt or $22/mt) below last week’s spot price range of $40.00-$41.50 cwt. ($800-$830/nt or $882-$915/mt) ex-mill. And while deals were previously reserved for large customers, small to medium-sized customers are reportedly able to strike “decent” deals more often than not in the last week.