Rebar prices continued to trend downward in Iranian market. The last transactions of rebar have handled at the level of $1,040-1,060/mt ex-stock Tehran down from $1,080-1,100/mt registered only a week ago and from $1,360-1,410 mt seen at the beginning of August. Meanwhile even higher levels were seen in June and July . Iran's rebar market experienced some fluctuation in recent two weeks so that local prices of rebar saw a temporary upward trend in last week when prices were coming down globally.
Main Iranian state-owned suppliers of rebar including Esfahan Steel ,Iran National Steel Industrial Group, Khorasan Steel and Azarbayijan Steel were unable to sell any rebar in the market since last Sunday as declining trend prevented buyers to enter the market . A lot of Chinese origin of rebar ( 3,300 mt ) of 10-25 mm diameter was also unable to find a customer through Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) since sellers\\\\ price offer of $1,060 per mt ex-stock Tehran was far above buyers' bid of $912/mt .
Rebar market is one of the sectors of steel market in which private sector already has a powerful presence. According to government's statistics, during the last Iranian year (21.03.2007-20.03.2008 ) privately-owned rolling mills produced about 1.7 million mt of rebar, while state-owned mills produced about 3 million mt of rebar and remaining 1.2 million mt of rebar were imported.
Rebar has the largest market among other finished steel products in Iran. The demand for rebar in Iran, which is about 6-7 million mt, accounting for more than 30 percent of Iran's total demand for steel, which is standing at the level of about 20-21 million mt per year. Out of this figure, 10 million mt is produced by local producers and about 10 million mt is imported.