According to Egypt’s official Gazette, the Egyptian government has raised local fuel prices in another round of subsidy cuts designed to overhaul the country’s ailing economy and meet the requirements of a large bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The development is expected to exert additional pressure on Egyptian steel mills’ prices by raising their production costs since it will increase transportation and logistics costs. The move follows recent hikes in electricity prices.
The repercussions of the hike in domestic fuel prices in Egypt are also expected to support market expectations that integrated and semi-integrated producers in the country will step up their billet imports in the coming weeks as Egypt’s administrative court suspended preliminary billet safeguard duties last week.