International demand for long products has not only not improved over the past week, but has become even more silent now when the EU is almost at a complete standstill while waiting for the country-specific quotas to be announced. In addition, import scrap prices in Turkey have continued sliding and, thus, despite being seemingly close to the bottom, have pushed longs export prices in the region down further.
While some Egyptian mills have provided discounts, a few have remained at higher levels, not seeing the potential for discounts bringing in much additional demand. Algeria, on the other hand, prefers to hold back official export offers for rebar and wire rod, having higher indications in the domestic market and relatively decent demand.
Egypt’s rebar export prices for July and August shipments are at $585-600/mt FOB, versus $595-600/mt FOB seen last week. Some sellers, however, are mulling offers as low as $580/mt FOB, in line with the latest rebar export prices from Turkey. In the wire rod segment, offers are mainly at $600-610/mt FOB, down $5-10/mt over the past week. Locally, Ezz Steel material is mainly sold in the market at EGP 39,000-39,400/mt ($690-697/mt) ex-works/warehouse, while rebar from smaller mills is in the range of EGP 35,300-37,000/mt ($625-655/mt) ex-works, sources report. Local billet prices have been maintained at EGP 31,000-32,500/mt ($550-575/mt) and up to EGP 34,500/mt ($610/mt) ex-works, depending on the supplier.
Algeria, as mentioned, is not actively offering longs for export, while keeping official local offers stable at DZD 117,000/mt and DZD 118,000/mt ex-works, which equals around $735/mt and $745/mt ex-works, respectively. According to some market players, discounts of up to 3-5 percent are applicable for large and serious buyers.
Egypt’s VAT is 14 percent.
Algeria’s VAT is 19 percent.
$1 = EGP 49.56
$1 = DZD 133.56
