Rebar prices from German mills have moved up only minimally in recent weeks, with wire mesh seeing the same fate.
A manager of a bender firm reports market talk that prices for wire rod have recovered somewhat since November, which could feed through to wire mesh pricing. At present, delivered prices of wire mesh are at around €60/tonne ($70) above rebar, Kallanish learns from buyers.
For rebar, base price offers now stand at €340/t. When adding the standard size extra of €265, this would result in a delivered price of €605/t. The base price for wire mesh is €100 higher, at €440/t, which plus an average surcharge of €212 would give a delivered price of €662/t, another manager specifies.
He does not believe that wire mesh will see a stronger upward momentum than rebar, mainly because wire mesh is typically used in construction of smaller residential units, a segment in which activity is particularly sluggish.
One extraordinary factor is the increase that occurred in late summer of size extras for rebar at one particular mill, Badische Stahlwerke. According to the manager, Badische also meant to bring up the surcharges for wire mesh. While they more or less succeeded with rebar, they did not work with wire mesh, he says.
Also, the only mill to follow Badische’s example was Austria’s Marienhütte. Other mills have not shown attempts to follow suit, “and they will not anytime soon”, the manager predicts.
