China's wire rod export prices have remained flat this week, even though the domestic market has been volatile.

Chinese exporters did not lower their wire rod export prices this week even though domestic prices fell. On the contrary, because steel mills believe that export prices have not kept up with the previous increase in domestic prices, some export offers were raised to $725/tonne fob China at the beginning of the week. High-carbon wire rod was offered at $770/t fob China.

A major wire rod export mill in northern China concluded a 20,000-tonne deal at $715/t fob China earlier this week. Despite the increase in mill offers, the indicative deal level of Chinese wire rod is at $715-720/t fob China, according to a Zhejiang trader. Skyrocketing sea freight and stable demand from overseas customers led to few transactions this week, the trader adds.

On Thursday, Kallanish assessed 6.5mm diameter mesh-grade wire rod at $715/t fob China, unchanged from a week earlier.