The Iranian I-beam market has been indicating a downtrend in prices in the past week against a background of poor demand and a low transaction volume. 140-180 mm I-beam sizes are currently changing hands at $770-790/mt ex-stock Tehran for immediate delivery and cash payment, down from $880-900/mt the week before under the same terms. Higher I-beam sizes (200-270 mm) are at present in a range of $855-960/mt ex-stock Tehran for immediate delivery and cash payment, marking a reduction of $20-30/mt compared with the week before.
On July 12 a few batches of ready stock imported 140-180 mm I-beam sizes were offered via the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME). However, just one batch of Chinese origin material of the sizes in question was successful in finding a buyer at about $600/mt ex-stock Iranian southern ports, while the other I-beam batches failed to find buyers due to their high prices - other batches of I-beam (Spanish origin) were offered at $690-720/mt ex-stock Iranian southern ports.
The Iranian U-beam market is mainly dominated by CIS, Chinese and Turkish material as there is no significant production of U-beam by local Iranian mills. Russian 6.5-180 mm U-beam sizes are currently standing in a range of $650-700/mt ex-stock Tehran. On the other hand, same size Turkish U-beams are in a range of $740-800/mt ex-stock Tehran. Both Russian and Turkish U-beams have undergone a reduction of $15-30/mt during the last two to three weeks in the local Iranian market.
The local angles market in Iran has also been indicating a price downtrend in recent weeks. 30 x 30 mm to 120 x 120 mm angle sizes are currently standing at $640-650/mt ex-stock Tehran, down from $650-660/mt the week before and $670-680/mt two weeks ago. The Iranian angles market, just like the local markets for I-beams and U-beams, has been fairly stagnant, while weak demand has caused the transaction volume to decline significantly in recent weeks. Some traders are even expecting further price reductions in the coming weeks due to the lower price of billets in the global markets. Iranian rolling mills which mainly produce angles are dependent on imported billet and, therefore, global billet prices have a direct impact on their production costs.