Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland, was 2,750-2,800 ($675-687) zloty per tonne on Friday, unchanged since July 7.
Official offers from local steelmakers for low-carbon, drawing-quality wire rod were reported at 2,800-2,900 zloty per tonne CPT, unchanged since late July, but the upper end of that range was deemed unworkable by most buyers.
Buyers said the tradable value was closer to 2,750-2,760 zloty per tonne CPT.
Trading remained limited in the week to Friday, however, with buyers tending to book only small lots to cover urgent needs.
Sources also pointed out that demand for commodity grade wire rod was slow in Poland.
“There is only demand for niche products, such as special meshes, special wire, etc, so – without specializing in some specific area – there is no way to cover costs. Nowadays, you need very wide range of [wire rod] products and a huge portfolio of customers to break even,” a distributor in Poland told Fastmarkets.
Wire rod import offers to Poland were also limited in the week to Friday, with Italian mills out of the market due to summer stoppages.
One Ukrainian supplier was offering mesh-quality wire rod from stock at €610-615 ($667-673) per tonne CPT depending on tonnage, sources said, stable on-week.
And another Ukrainian supplier was offering mesh-quality wire rod at €570 per tonne DAP border, which nets back to about €600 per tonne CPT.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
