The US wire rod market is still struggling to climb as offer prices have risen but demand has not. On the whole, following US mills' scrap-based price hike announcements earlier in the month, domestic wire rod offers are up by about $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt), with most domestic low carbon offers currently ranging from $30.00 cwt. to $31.00 cwt. ($661/mt to $683/mt or $600/nt to $620/nt) ex-mill. This range does not reflect the full increase that producers originally announced, but given the weak demand, mills may have a hard time raising prices beyond the abovementioned range.
Nevertheless, the pricing trend remains slightly up as there is already talk that mills may announce another price increase in February, depending on scrap prices. As with the latest price increase, mills know they are unlikely to receive it in full, but they may use it as a mechanism to drive home the previous hike.
As for imports, most traders continue to offer Turkish rod at a range of about $28.50 cwt. to $29.50 cwt. $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. However, Turkish mills are having difficulties getting bookings and customers are hesitant to book at the current offered price as they are uncertain about whether prices will continue rising in the next couple month and there is not a big enough gap between the import and domestic offers. So, the price trend for import rod has neutralized, and Turkish mills may even become more willing to negotiate on prices if raw material costs start to trend down again or they become more desperate for bookings. For now, mills aren't too inclined to move prices in either direction.
Preliminary census data from the US DOC shows that wire rod imports totaled 89,690 mt in December, which reflects a decent-sized increase from November imports of 58,359 mt. However, as there have been few competitive import offers for many weeks, import arrivals aren't expected to continue escalating strongly in January/February. The US' top import sources for wire rod in December, as per the preliminary census data, were: Canada (31,081 mt), Italy (17,348 mt), Turkey (14,908 mt), Japan (9,851 mt), and Mexico (6,447 mt).
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