3/9/2009
NEWS BRIEFS
Consensus Growing on Wire Rod Prices in Coming Months

Prices for domestic wire rod are holding steady, despite weak demand and mill capacity outages, American Metal Market reports. But that could quickly change, with the growing consensus among buyers who say “rod prices could follow scrap down during April, May and June.”

U.S. f.o.b. mill prices on industrial-quality low-carbon rod is around $640 per ton, on par with February.

“If there is a (new) price out there, it’s hard to know what it is because so few tons are being traded,” AMM quoted a Gulf Coast rod buyer. “Orders at the customer level continue to be weak, and none of my customers are anticipating an uptick in their business in the near term.”

Foreign suppliers are generally quoting about 7% to 11% cheaper, though those figures did not include inland freight.

In general, buyers agreed that the good news for the industry is a lack of pushback from customers on current pricing.