The wire rod is the lot used steel product which is traded in different kinds of alloys. This product’s global trade has gone through a stable trend recently and its trade was 8,690mt in 2020 and this trade was concentrated in Asia and Europe.
China has been the largest wire rod exporter over the course of 2011-20 and it had 23% share in the global wire rod trade. Also, the industrial country, Germany, was the largest wire rod importer during this period and this country’s import share of the wire rod global trade was 8% in 2020. The second place after Germany is belonged to the USA. Due to the various industries growth, it’s expected that the global market of the wire rod accompanied by increase.
The wire rod has got the most applications among the steel products and it’s used in variety industries such as construction, durable goods, infrastructure, automotive and industrial equipment. This rod in construction industry is used in reinforcement and molding, types of mesh fence and fence netting, barbed wire, prefabricated walls, and in greenhouses or it’s used in auto mechanical springs, different cranes, motorbikes, bicycles and tires, nails, screws, rivet and kinds of springs. Also, power transition cables can be pointed to as the other use of the wire rod. The wire rod is produced and traded in different alloys and grades. Moreover it is supplied in a coated form to use in special consumption. Phosphate-coated wires, galvanized wires, wire ropes, aluminum- coated wire are different types of coated wire rods.
The vast application of this steel product makes its global trade to be important. This market has faced many ups and downs during the past years, in a way that its trend in many countries was upward and in some countries was decreasing. Figure 1 indicated the global trade of the wire rod which has increased from 8,200mt in 2011 to 8,700mt in 2020; of course that this global trade had a 3% drop in 2020 compared to 2019. Also, according to the Atubis estimates, the average of the global annually growth over the research period was around 1%. The wire rod global trade concentrated mainly in Asia and Europe recently and the highest amount of this trade was occurred in 2018 with a quantity of 9,320mt.
China is the superior in wire rod export
China has been the key wire rod exporter in the world since 2011-20. As the figure 2 indicates, around 23% of this global trade was this Asian country’s average share in 2020. China was the first exporter all along this period and after that it can pointed to Italy, South Korea, Czechia, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, and Netherlands as the other main wire rod exporters.
The bright tip about these super exporters is the recent growth in some of these countries. For instance Turkey and Russia had just a small share in the wire rod global trade in 2011, but as the same time of the industries growth in mentioned countries, they obtained a higher position in this trade. Turkey’s export was 165kt in 2011 which by 11% increase in annual growth reached 430kt in 2020. Moreover, Russia’s wire rod export with 17% annual growth reached 380kt in 2020. Italy has gained a higher export share over this period, so that, this European country extend its share from 5% in 2011 to 9% in 2020.
Germany is the largest the wire rod importer
Germany has known as the largest the wire rod importer throughout 2011-20 and it allocated 8% of the total this product’s import to itself in 2020. The significant growth of industries and equipment in this country which due to this reason Germany had the highest industrial index growth after the financial crisis (2008). The Atubis surveys show that this country is one the largest advanced machines and equipment which is the driver of the wire rod demand in Germany. This product mainly use in machinery and equipment industry like welding electrode, different types of fixed and mobile cranes, the kinds of winches, wire fasteners, and the dental and medical equipment. In addition to this industry, Germany’s automotive industry is the other pioneer industries which its growth has been effective on this country’s wire rod demand.
As it’s shown in figure 3, Germany was always the largest importer and its average import was 1,400mt during 2010-20. The USA, Poland, France, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Romani were the other importers which despite the growth of the wire rod import, their share had been stable. It’s good point to know that the USA was the main importer as Germany and its average import share was 8%.
What will happen in wire rod market?
The wire rod has a vast use in alloys such as simple carbon steel, alloy steel, and stainless steel. The wire rods increase follows the different global industries’ growth and development. As it said before, the industrial countries are the largest importers of this product. And the global wire rod market’s size was over $90bn in 2020. Also, it is predicted that this size can reach $125bn in 2025 which caused the growth in this trade.