Local Iranian traders are already transacting 30 x 30 mm - 120 x 120 mm angle sizes at $1,500-1,600/mt on ex-stock Tehran basis. This price range is $75-80/mt higher than last week and about $165/mt higher than four weeks ago. Equal angles are produced by many Iranian rolling mills but most of them are unable to use their capacities fully due to the shortage of billet. Local production of billet and other semi-finished products do not meet domestic market demand, while at the same time there exist some financial and other restrictions as regards billet importation.
Unequal angles as well as some special sizes are usually imported from the CIS, China and Turkey; however, the market requirements are mainly supplied by local re-rollers, the majority of which belong to the private-sector. Local rolling mills are fully dependent on imported billet and so naturally their prices are directly influenced by global prices of steel.
The surge in construction projects in Iran in recent years, in both the public and private sectors, has greatly boosted demand for construction steel such as angles. Nowadays, supplies of angles in Iran fall well short of meeting market demand and this is the main factor which has boosted prices to such high levels. The prices of angles in the local Iranian market have usually been more or less close to those of I-beam; however, angles have now surpassed I-beam prices and are opening up a large gap on them.
A large volume of I-beam, about 1.2 million mt, was imported into the country in the last Iranian year (20.03.2007-19.03.2008), i.e. three times higher than the volume of I-beam imported during the previous Iranian year (20.03.2006-19.03.2007). This surge in imports has resulted in high stock levels of I-beam in the local market. On the other hand, not only has there not been any increase in imports of angles, there has even been a significant reduction. Iran imported about 9,000 mt of angles and T-bars (of sizes greater than 80 mm) during the last three months, while it imported about 40,000 mt during the corresponding period of last year, according to data from the Iranian customs authorities. Imports of angles of less than 80 mm in the last three months, totaling about 23,000 mt, do not show any considerable change compared with the corresponding period of last year.