To provide a price-competitive compression ring having excellent thermal conductivity and thermal sag resistance, which can be used in a high-thermal-load environment of high-compression-ratio engines, steel identified by the material number of SKS93 in JIS G 4404 is used, and a piston ring wire is annealed before an oil-tempering treatment such that spheroidal cementite having an average particle size of 0.1-1.5 μm is dispersed in a tempered martensite matrix.