Although some Mexican rebar mills attempted to raise domestic prices last week by anywhere from US$14-$29/mt, spot prices nevertheless fell about US$24mt/ex-mill during the course of the last two weeks, down to the level of US$670mt/ex-mill.
While the publically-funded housing sector has seen a reduction in volume of projects, smaller private home builders are accelerating their production in order to capture a greater market share of the overall construction sector.
In the first seven months of the year, homebuilders listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange registered in the Register of Housing (UVR) reported a total of 22,335 units built, representing a drop of 38.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
Gene Towle, managing partner of the consulting firm Softec, said that what has been observed in the country is that new projects are not launching at the same pace as last year mainly because major homebuilders Geo, Homex and Urbi have not been as active this year and they typically account for about 30 percent of total sales.