US domestic wire rod prices flat, import prices fall
Published by:Robert England<>
20 May 2025 @ 22:13 UTC

Prices for domestic industrial-quality (IQ) wire rod in the US were flat in May as mills held firm in the face of declining scrap prices amid lower import prices, according to market participants. Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel wire rod (low carbon) industrial quality, fob mill US was $47.00-53.00 per hundredweight ($940-1,060 per short ton) on Tuesday May 20, unchanged from April 15 and unchanged at the midpoint but widening from $47.50-52.50 per cwt on March 18.
Canadian and Mexican mills, whose prices were boosted by the restoration of Section 232 tariffs, were mostly priced out of the market as lower-priced imports flowed in from Egypt, Turkey, Vietnam and Indonesia, sources said.
Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel wire rod (low carbon) import, loaded truck Port of Houston for immediate delivery was $760-800 per short ton ($38-40 per cwt) on Tuesday, down by 17.46% from $810-1,080 per short ton on April 15, and down by 8.24% from $770-930 per ton on March 18.
Heard in the market Higher tariffs have tightened domestic supply in the market, boosting mills’ ability to hold steady on pricing, sources said.
All the mills are seriously overbooked and running behind. Demand is still good, so the mills are not inclined to come down from their prices under those conditions. Why would they lower prices when some aren’t or are severely limiting their order intake currently, a wire buyer said.
Additional domestic supply from Liberty Steel could, however, ease the upward pricing pressure, the buyer said.
Liberty Steel idled its wire rod production at its Peoria, Illinois, plant in September 2024 and idled downstream wire production at the same plant in December.
Liberty Steel restarted operations in early May and is ramping up to full production within the next one to two months, an informed source told Fastmarkets.
The steel buyer said Liberty Steel’s current production is limited. They need to work out the bugs from the long winter shutdown.
Buyers are already booked out into the medium term for most of their needs, so they aren’t looking to add more short-term inventory and drive their eventual inventory levels up for fear of a big price correction, the steel buyer said.
Liberty [Steel] is coming up at a tough time, with imports arriving from the fourth quarter 2024 bookings, and with the usual seasonal slowdown coming this summer. Hopefully, they will be up and running soon and bring some supply to a very tight market, the steel buyer added.
Availability concerns Availability is more of an issue than price, a consumer told Fastmarkets. I would submit that if you are not a regular customer, no price is high enough to obtain rod today.
If you are a regular customer, the mills can charge about whatever they want to charge, but animal spirits have been contained somewhat by declining scrap prices, they said.
A Midwest distributor shared a similar view, saying, Availability is a little frustrating now, as we are having to order further out due to customers who used to buy from Canada and are now primarily using US mills.
The consumer said that when scrap prices start rising again, it will push wire rod prices higher until they hit the wall of imports that will hit the US in the third quarter, which could bring down domestic prices.
If Liberty Steel successfully gears up production and prospers, my guess is that domestic pricing softens up more and sooner, the consumer added.
Alternative rod Prices for alternative wire rod products were also flat in May.
Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel wire rod (high carbon), fob mill US was $66.00 per cwt on Tuesday, unchanged from April 15 and up by 7.32% from $61.50 per cwt on March 18.
And Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel wire rod cold-heading quality, ddp was $67.00 per cwt on Tuesday, unchanged from April 15 and up by 3.88% from $64.50 per cwt on March 18.