Wire rod is steel hot rolled to a small round section, usually 5.5 to 16 mm, and wound into coils as it leaves the mill. It is the raw material for almost all steel wire — drawn into nails, mesh, fencing, springs, fasteners, tyre cord and rope — and a major traded product in the Middle East.
Wire rod is the smallest hot-rolled long product. A billet, usually 130–160 mm square, is reheated and rolled through a continuous rod mill, finishing at up to 100 m/s or more in a block of small stands, and the rod is laid into rings on a cooling conveyor and collected into coils. The speed of cooling on that conveyor (Stelmor and similar systems) decides the microstructure: slow cooling gives soft low-carbon rod for easy drawing, and controlled fast cooling gives the fine pearlite that high-carbon rod needs before it is drawn into spring or prestressing wire.
The rod is not usually used as it is: it is cold drawn through dies into wire of smaller diameter, which raises its strength and gives it an accurate size and a clean surface. So wire rod is bought on how well it draws — chemistry, cleanliness, decarburisation, scale and the absence of surface defects — as much as on its size. Low-carbon drawing quality (SAE 1006–1010, C4D–C10D) becomes nails, binding wire, mesh and fencing; mesh and construction quality is drawn into reinforcing wire; high-carbon rod (SAE 1060–1080, C60D–C82D) is drawn into springs, rope wire, PC wire and strand; cold-heading quality becomes bolts, screws and rivets.
Rod in the 8–16 mm range is also rolled with ribs as coiled rebar, which is straightened and cut on site or in cut-and-bend shops.
In the GCC, wire rod is rolled by the large integrated mills — among them Hadeed (SABIC) in Saudi Arabia and Emirates Steel Arkan in the UAE — and imported, with Turkey the reference export market for the region. Local wire drawers turn it into binding wire, nails, mesh and galvanized wire for the construction market. MESteel publishes weekly wire rod prices FOB Turkey and CPT Saudi Arabia, the monthly Middle East import price and the China wire rod futures.
Rod is ordered by diameter, grade and quality (drawing, mesh, cold heading, high carbon), and supplied in compacted coils tied with steel bands. Mass per metre is fixed by the diameter; the wire rod size table gives it for the usual sizes.
Full dimensions: Wire rod diameters and mass per metre
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| International | EN ISO 16120-1 to -4 ISO |
Non-alloy steel wire rod for conversion to wire — general requirements, general purpose rod, low-carbon rimmed and killed rod, rod for special applications (replaced EN 10016) |
| Europe | EN 10016-1 to -4 CEN-CENELEC replaced by EN ISO 16120 |
Non-alloy steel rod for drawing and/or cold rolling |
| International | ISO 16124 ISO |
Steel wire rod — dimensions and tolerances |
| Europe | EN 10017 CEN-CENELEC |
Steel rod for drawing and/or cold rolling — dimensions and tolerances |
| Europe | EN 10263-1 to -5 CEN-CENELEC |
Steel rod, bars and wire for cold heading and cold extrusion |
| USA | ASTM A510/A510M ASTM |
General requirements for wire rods and coarse round wire, carbon steel — grades by SAE number and size tolerances |
| Japan | JIS G3505 JSA |
Low carbon steel wire rods (SWRM) |
| Japan | JIS G3506 JSA |
High carbon steel wire rods (SWRH) |
| Japan | JIS G3507-1 JSA |
Carbon steel for cold heading — wire rods (SWRCH) |
| China | GB/T 701 SAC |
Hot-rolled low carbon steel wire rod (Q195, Q215, Q235) |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Fabrication · Dammam
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Base Materials · Dubai
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