Egyptian rebar buyers delay new bookings

Following the recent strong political tension observed in Egypt, producers from Turkey and the CIS have increased their rebar and steel billet offers for the Egyptian market. Accordingly, the latest Turkish rebar offers to Egypt are standing at $685-690/mt CFR, while steel billet offers from the CIS are at $625/mt CFR. While no transaction has been concluded at these price levels, Egyptian buyers state that they do not consider these price levels to be workable, giving their own price idea for rebar at $670-675/mt CFR.
 
Egypt's largest rebar producer EZZ Steel has kept its rebar price for March unchanged as compared to January and February at EGP 4,600/mt ($763/mt) ex-works. Egyptian buyers, who were waiting for EZZ Steel to announce its new prices in order to begin negotiations for new import bookings, have kept their price expectations unchanged after EZZ Steel's price announcement.
 
SteelOrbis has learned from market sources that Egyptian buyers are delaying their bookings for the time being, thinking that Turkish mills may reduce their rebar export prices if their recent rebar price hike on the back of higher Turkish domestic demand fails to find support from the export markets.