Egyptian rebar buyers fail to show interest in lower Turkish offers

Rebar demand in the Egyptian domestic rebar market is currently sluggish as traders are abstaining from concluding new transactions since they have high inventory levels.
 
Early last week, Turkish mills' rebar offers to the Egyptian market were at $690-695/mt CFR, for prompt shipments. However, this price level failed to gain acceptance in the market and so Turkish producers moved down their offers to $680/mt CFR toward the end of last week. Despite the price softening of $10-15/mt, Egyptian buyers have not made any purchases so far.
 
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in the first week of January, Egypt's largest rebar producer EZZ Steel increased its domestic rebar price by EGP 100/mt ($17/mt) for January to the level of EGP 4,600/mt ($763/mt) ex-works. The price in question is on actual weight basis and includes eight percent sales tax.
 
Despite the current sluggishness in the Egyptian rebar market, it is thought that local rebar demand may recover in the coming period, once domestic traders' inventories become depleted.