Egypt has taken decisive steps to shield its steel sector from rising import pressures. Following a significant surge in steel imports, Egypt has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of provisional safeguard duties on billets, aiming to restore profitability and market stability for domestic producers.
According to the Egyptian authorities, imports of billet surged 227 percent year on year in 2024. These sharp rises eroded local producers’ market share and profitability, prompting emergency measures to prevent long-term damage to the domestic steel industry.
In response to the threat, Egypt is proposing a provisional safeguard duty on billet imports following a safeguard investigation. Proposed provisional safeguard duty on the imports of the given product under the code 7207 is 16.2 percent ad valorem on the CIF import value, with a minimum specific duty of 4,613 EGP/mt, effective from September 14, 2025, valid for 200 days or to around April/May 2026. Previously, Egypt imposed a safeguard import duty on billet in 2019 at 16 percent which was to be gradually decrease to 13 percent and then to 10 percent. However, supported by the lobby of the local re-rolling companies, who faced declined efficiency of their production operations, the safeguard duty was cancelled in November 2021, and reopened gates to billet imports for several years.
The newly proposed safeguard duty is expected to have a similar impact on the market and is to minimize the import billet inflow to Egypt, at least in the mid-term. In the recent years, Egypt was mainly focusing on importing billet, originating from Russia and Donbass, an occupied territory of Ukraine, since it had been the cheapest one. “Import duties are applicable for the cargoes which are at the port and not yet custom cleared [in addition to newly booked ones],” a Russian billet seller told SteelOrbis. In addition, there were occasional billet sales from Ukrainian mills in case of matching prices and sufficient allocation. Asian billet was being booked to Egypt in case of competitive pricing and acceptable lead time.
“Egypt’s import from Russia is to for sure drop significantly, leaving Turkey basically the only large buyer [of this origin] in the region. But Turkey’s workable prices are much lower than Egyptian ones were until recently and in this situation [Turkish] buyers will put even more pressure, I think,” a market source said, commenting on the situation.
According to market information, the latest workable prices from Russia to Egypt, before the announcement, stood at $485/mt CFR and maybe slightly higher than that. In the meantime, the recent bids from Turkey have been reported at $455-460/mt CFR, following deals at $458-465/mt CFR closed over the past couple of weeks.