Italian wire rod producers are mulling increases from next week, by some €40/tonne ($42) compared to asking prices in April. Local sellers are taking advantage of EU import quota exhaustion and the long delivery times buyers will have to face before clearing imported material through customs, sources tell Kallanish.

A wire rod buyer says he is decreasing his prices as consumption downstream continues to be extremely unreliable. Another buyer believes hikes will not stick and re-rollers will continue to buy very low volumes in May. This is a quiet week in Italy and no contracts are being concluded. Several executives in the steel sector are already on holiday due to the Italian bank holiday on 25 April and Labour Day on 1 May.

A wire rod mill source reports low demand in April and “a dead market this week”. Some activity is seen restarting after Labour Day. “If we are lucky, they [buyers] will start asking for material from Monday 6 May,” another source comments.

Meanwhile, a trader says there is demand for imported wire rod despite the import quota exhaustion. However, lead times are long and buyers are only willing to wait to clear material through customs if prices are sensibly lower than domestic values.

Another trader says he sold good volumes of Asian wire rod at the Tube & Wire tradeshow in Dusseldorf last week for lower-than-domestic values. No large contracts were agreed between buyers and Italian mills in Dusseldorf. “Nothing concrete has happened,” the wire rod mill notes.

High-carbon steel wire rod sales volumes continue to be higher versus low-carbon drawing-quality material. Domestic values for drawing-quality material are now at €610-630/t ex-works on average. Domestic mills are considering pushing up their asking prices to €670/t ex-works, sources say.

Northern European wire rod prices are flat again amid low demand. Domestic transaction prices for drawing-quality wire rod are at €650/t ex-works and mesh-grade wire rod is at €620/t (see Kallanish 19 April).