UAE-based Emirates Steel Industries (ESI) has decided not to make any changes to its domestic rebar price for November production. However, taking into account that the market severely lacks support from the demand side, sentiment among market insiders has become more mixed after the company’s announcement.
Despite the latest workable price levels in UAE being hardly higher than $490-499/mt (AED 1,800-1,830/mt) ex-works, official offers from the local rebar giant Emirates Steel Industries for November have remained at $527/mt (AED 1,936/mt) ex-works, SteelOrbis has learned. “The retail market for ESI’s rebar is still at AED1,830-1,840/mt ex-warehouse, so the implied margins are almost zero considering the current prices,” an Emirati trader commented. “Despite the poor sentiments, the rollover was quite expected. They [ESI] couldn’t reduce the prices immediately after increasing them by AED106/mt last month. Probably they will do it next month. However, another rollover is not excluded,” another trader stated.
$1 = AED 3.673