The local Iranian rebar market is currently on a declining trend even though most market participants had predicted price increases for the post-Ramadan period. Following the strong stagnation observed during Ramadan, the Iranian rebar market has not only failed to show any signs of recovery but has even declined further both last week and this week.
12-25 mm rebar in the Iranian domestic market currently stands in a price range of $530-540/mt ex-stock Tehran, which represents a reduction of about $15-30/mt compared with two weeks ago. Rebar prices had reached a peak level of $570-600/mt ex-stock Tehran in the local market in the early and middle part of July but have declined since then.
On October 4, local state-owned producer Azarbaijan Steel sold some batches of rebar via the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) at $530/mt ex-works with delivery of about 18 days, while Esfahan Steel, another of the main Iranian rebar suppliers, has not recorded any sales of rebar in the current week (Esfahan Steel had sold some batches of rebar through the IME at $550-555/mt ex-works last week).
The approach of winter, which usually frustrates construction activities in Iran as in other countries, is another factor which does not allow anybody to get optimistic about Iranian rebar prices in the near future. In spite of this, some local traders are looking forward to further positive developments as regards global billet prices, which could push up rebar prices in the local Iranian market regardless of the existing stagnation.