“Current market forces, along with a surge in imported steel, have led to a decrease in rod prices, causing the mill to incur higher production costs than the selling price of the rod,” the company said in a press release.

“Unfortunately, market forces are working against us in the rod market with the increase in imports and significant pressure on transportation costs. We fully intend to bring the rod mill back up as soon as it makes financial sense to do so,” chief operating officer Pieter Vanderwesthuizen said.

Liberty said it “is not idling the facility,” and will resume operations when markets recover.

An industry observer told Fastmarkets on Friday that Liberty intends to supply wire rod for operations and its Georgetown facility from its wire rod facility in Peoria, Illinois.

During the pause in wire production, the company said it will perform needed maintenance.

• [Editor:kangmingfei]