Rebar prices still continue to decline in the local Iranian market. 12-25 mm rebar sizes are currently being offered at $520-530/mt ex-stock Tehran for immediate delivery on cash payment basis. The prices for this material in the local market had stood at $535-560/mt ex-stock Tehran at the beginning of March and have been on a steady declining trend since then.
Some local traders hoping to cash in their stocks before the long Iranian New Year holiday (which starts on March 19) have been obliged to offer at prices even lower than those of the main suppliers. According to some reports, rebar has even been offered by some traders at $500-520/mt ex-stock Tehran.
In recent days Esfahan Steel sold a few minor batches of small rebar sizes at about $535/mt through the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME); furthermore, Azarbaijan Steel, which is one of the main state-owned rolling mills, failed to sell some small batches of rebar through the IME even at the low price of about $500/mt on Sunday, March 8, and Monday, March 9.
The falling global prices of billet have already influenced domestic prices of rebar in Iran. A large part of rebar supplied by Iranian privately-owned rolling mills is produced mainly from ex-CIS billet. Local traders are worried that billet prices in the global markets may decline further and cause them to incur more losses and so some of them are in a hurry to clear their stocks. In addition, the two week-long New Year holidays and the stagnation which usually lasts for a further few weeks after the holidays are stimulating a lot of traders to sell off material at the current time. In fact, there appears to be little chance for sales of rebar stocks at least until the middle of April if traders do not succeed in selling stocks before the holidays. However, the stagnation is Iran's domestic rebar market is so pervasive that it is difficult for anyone to foresee a recovery even after the New Year holidays.