US import rebar and wire rod pricing was steady this week amid improved US domestic market sentiment following a successful presidential win for Donald Trump, even as it was reported that domestic wire and wire rod supplies would remain reduced as a key US production plant will remain offline until March, market insiders told SteelOrbis this week.
Insiders told SteelOrbis this week that Liberty Steel’s downed 700,000-ton wire and wire rod production facility in Peoria, Illinois, will remain offline until March 3, 2025, pending the acceptance of certain “financial arrangements.”
While no additional details were made immediately available from Liberty, market insiders say the plant, built in 1902, is desperately in need of equipment upgrades so as to make it more competitive with newer electric arc furnaces (EAFs) expected to come online in 2025. This increased supply -especially if demand fails to improve much- could further reduce already razor thin margins for older melt shops, which could make Liberty even more subject to permanent closure for competitive reasons, should upgrades not be made now, they told SteelOrbis.
“I give Liberty a 50/50 chance of coming back online in March,” one import rebar market insider told SteelOrbis this week. “It’s going to take a lot of work to get Liberty back up to speed, so personally, I don’t think that Liberty will be back anytime soon. As a result, from this point forward, the trend looks to be leaning higher for imports.”
Recently, market insiders said the combination of the Liberty shutdown, with the $30/ton FOB mill domestic rebar price increase from Irving, Texas-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC) was expected to make imported wire rod and eventually, rebar products more price competitive. Others thought the CMC price increase was a signal by the mill to customers that aggressive mill discounting programs aimed at keeping domestic rebar and wire rod competitive had come to an end. So far, no higher domestic rebar prices have been reported to SteelOrbis as a result of the CMC price increase.
In the weekly long steel import markets, US Gulf Coast rebar on a loaded truck basis is discussed unchanged at $36.00-36.50/cwt. ($720-730/nt or $794-805/mt), while stable pricing was also noted for US East Coast import rebar with ranges reported at $36.00-36.50/cwt. ($720-730/nt or $794-805/mt).
Import rebar prices from Egypt and Algeria were also reported steady on the week, with most transactions noted in a $36.50-$37.00/cwt. range, ($730-740/nt or $805-815/mt). Import rebar from Turkey on a delivered US Gulf Coast basis is discussed flat at $38/cwt. ($760/nt or $838/mt).
Delivered rebar from Mexico vicinity Houston, Texas, is discussed steady week to week at $37.00-38.00/cwt. ($740-760/nt or $816-838/mt), compared with earlier assessments two weeks ago at $36.00-37.00/cwt. ($720-740/nt or $794-816/mt).
On the wire rod front, imported wire rod mesh on a DDP loaded truck basis US Gulf Coast is reported unchanged versus seven days ago at $37.00/cwt. ($740/nt or $816/mt) as imports are reported light as a result of competitive pricing from domestic mills.