Raising the necessity to work out the market stabilization measures against a rise in imports from China, Japan and Southeast Asia Domestic wire rod market and the related sectors are on a tendency to be swayed more by imported products. As the domestic production capacity has increased sharply together with a rise in the related demand over the past several years, the imports of wire rods and their products from Japan and China and other countries in Southeast Asia have increased at a fast pace, bringing about a rapid change in the domestic market, an industry official pointed out. In the case of the mild steel wire rods alone which account for over 30% of the domestic wire rod market, import prices of Chinese products had abruptly increase from the end of last year through the first quarter of this year, causing domestic makers of mild steel wire rod products to have a hard time in getting raw materials. Of course, makers exerted their efforts to keep their production cost when raising selling prices, but the market prices have much dropped recently, affected by the market conditions in China like the recent announcementof retrenchment policies, and thus, they have become to experience difficulties in disposing of foreign wire rods imported at high prices. Along with this, since the production ratio of domestic mild steel wire rods is analyzed to decline further in the near future, such imported products appear to exercise more strong influence over the domestic market. In the case of high carbon steel wire rods, since overseas makers in South Africa and Japan are continuously increasingtheir export prices, domestic makers of wire rod products are being driven into a more narrow corner not only in securing raw materials, but also in struggling with the price increase by consuming firms and keeping production costs. As for carbon steel wires for cold heading and cold forging (CHQ), a fast increase in the import prices resulted in a steep rise in wire rods and related products, causing fastener makers to experience difficulties in keeping their production costs. Especially, a surge in the imports of nails and regular fasteners from Southeast Asian countries has rapidly brought about sluggishness in the domestic market. jhyou@snmnews.com