The price reduction trend of rebar in Iran's domestic market has not yet come to a halt. Rebar prices for 12-25 mm sizes have already declined to $990-1,020/mt ex-stock Tehran for immediate delivery, while it stood at a price of $1,040-1,070/mt just one week before. Nowadays, some traders are even selling rebar with deferred payment. It is a general rule in the market that when prices are coming down buyers ask for deferred payment but when there is a rising trend sellers ask for a down payment before any delivery.
Azarbaijan Steel, which is one of Iran's state-owned suppliers of rebar, was unable to sell rebar through the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) a few days ago; buyers bid $880/mt ex-works, a price which the producer deemed to be too low. A few traders also recently failed to sell imported Chinese rebar through the IME, as buyers bid at a level considerably lower than the suppliers' price which was about $1,020/mt ex-stock Iranian southern ports.
Rebar, which constitutes the largest market in Iran among the other long products, presents any fluctuation more rapidly than other longs and, therefore, is often helpful in pricing other long products. For a few weeks now the sales volume of local rebar suppliers - both state-owned and private - have been posting a substantial decline as most buyers are delaying their purchases since prices are still coming down. State-owned mills can endure such stagnation as they are supported by the government; however, the privately-owned mills, which have registered strong development in recent years in Iran, are unable to bear such losses for long as they usually suffer from financial shortages even in a normal market situation. Nowadays, many privately-owned mills which need to bring in cash are selling their products at a loss in the absence of any strong demand for their material.