US wire rod prices remain unchanged amid tight supply

 Domestic wire rod prices remained unchanged in the US as buyers reported having little leverage to negotiate lower pricing with mills due to tight supply.

S&P Global Platts maintained its weekly US mesh quality wire rod assessment Friday at $780-$800/st. US domestic wire rod pricing has been stable throughout the summer as US mills have been busy with strong demand and relatively limited import pressure, according to market feedback. 

"Buyers have no leverage with the mills staying as busy as they are," a buy-side source said.

There has been talk in the market that some wire rod mills will hold their all-in pricing for September stable and may try to hold pricing at that level for the balance of the year, even with scrap prices likely to move lower for September, a Midwest-based wire drawer said.

Though scrap prices are expected to fall $30/lt for shredded and cut grades during the September buy week, they may fall down to $40/lt due to strong domestic scrap flows and the Turkish imported scrap market being derailed by the weakening lira.

Wire rod pricing typically follows the gains or losses seen in the scrap market. Mills, however, have been trying for decades to de-couple the two and the current strong demand for wire rod could give them a chance to do so, a second wire drawer said.

"The mills may cut some individual deals but I look for them to either hold prices firm, or perhaps announce a defensive price reduction at a fraction of the drop in scrap," he said.

A number of US rod mills have outages scheduled in September and October, which could keep the prices from sliding, sources said. The market continues to be short for some products due to some mills' inability to continue sourcing billets from foreign destinations as they used to prior to the US Section 232 tariffs on steel imports, the second wire drawer said.

Liberty Steel's purchase and restart of a wire rod mill in Georgetown, South Carolina, will help take some of the pressure off the market, but it will take some time to have an effect, the second wire drawer added. Liberty restarted the 680,000 st/year rod mill in June.

"Demand still seems strong, maybe a little off the early year pace but that was to be expected with as crazy as the market was," the Midwest wire drawer said. "I know mills are still swamped though."