Having been at low levels last week, demand in the local Egyptian rebar market has failed to improve over the past week. Meanwhile, it is observed that buyers are exerting downward pressure on domestic rebar prices. Last week, a decline in domestic rebar prices in Egypt was prevalently expected. But the price rises announced for electricity (42 percent) and natural gas (fifty percent) at the end of June has reflected on the invoices. Additionally, Egyptian government announced an additional price revision for natural gas prices on July 21, increasing them further between 33.3-75 percent. As a result, production costs of Egyptian rebar mills have increased significantly.
Despite these developments, Egyptian buyers are postponing their domestic rebar purchases due to the decreases recorded in import and domestic scrap quotations. Although production costs of Egyptian mills have increased, local mills are expected to reduce their domestic rebar prices in a very short term - after postponing it for some time now - against the backdrop of lower scrap quotations as well as the weakness of demand. In the meantime, domestic rebar prices in Egypt have moved sideways during the past week at EGP 12,250-12,530 EGP/mt (686-702$/mt) ex-works.
$1 = EGP 17.86