Although business activity in the wire rod market of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been reviving gradually as Covid-19 restrictions have been eased bit by bit, demand is still not sufficient enough for the sellers. As a result, deals have been sporadic.
In Saudi Arabia, local mill Hadeed had decided to leave its wire rod price unchanged at $507/mt (SAR 1,900/mt) CPT for July deliveries. In the import segment, minor lots have been purchased from Egypt at $485/mt CFR, up by around $10/mt over the past month. It is worth mentioning that for July Ezz Steel sold over 20,000 mt of wire rod abroad at $445-450/mt FOB, according to market sources, and is now offering $465/mt FOB for August shipments. The latest wire rod deals from UAE-based Emirates Steel Industries were closed a couple of weeks back at $472/mt (AED 1,734/mt) CPT Dammam. No new offers have been reported from the mill as it is going to announce the new prices for local and export markets shortly.
The previous domestic price from ESI was at $480/mt CPT UAE, while similar levels are being targeted by Qatar Steel as an official offer. UAE-based United Steel Company has offered $485-490/mt CPT this week for stock material. The producer’s wire rod line has been idled for a few months now due to the impact of Covid-19, while it plans to resume operations in August, SteelOrbis has learned. Although offer prices for wire rod in the UAE are rather high, sources report that trade has been extremely weak and that workable levels are closer to $460-470/mt CPT. Moreover, some sources have reported that offers from Saudi Arabia to the UAE have been aggressive at $450-455/mt CPT, but the information was not confirmed by the time of publication. “Logically Hadeed has no need to be aggressive since local demand is expected to improve a little and the additional import duties are set to cut out at least Asian suppliers for a while,” a large trader told SteelOrbis.
$1 = SAR 3.75
$1 = AED 3.67