While buyers in the local United Arab Emirates (UAE) rebar market are still waiting for domestic producer Emirates Steel Industries (ESI) to announce its rebar prices for February in order to position themselves, ESI has postponed its announcement to next week since it is still continuing to make deliveries of January rebar output.
While buyers in the local UAE rebar market are maintaining a wait-and-see stance due to the abovementioned situation, another reason for the slackness of rebar demand in the country is the heightened expectation among buyers for declines in rebar prices due to the increased momentum as of the beginning of last week in the downward movement of import scrap prices in Turkey which had started in mid-January. In these circumstances, UAE-based traders have decreased their domestic rebar quotations by AED 50/mt over the past week to AED 1,775-1,800/mt ($484-490/mt) delivered to customer.
Meanwhile, ex-Turkey rebar offers to the UAE, which were at $430-435/mt CFR on theoretical weight basis early last week, declined to $425/mt CFR on theoretical weight basis in the middle of last week, but this level was no longer available towards the end of the week due to the sharp declines in scrap prices. In the current week, ex-Turkey rebar offers to the UAE are at $410/mt CFR on theoretical weight basis, but no deal has been heard yet. However, this price level is expected to gain acceptance from UAE-based buyers depending on ESI’s price announcement for February production.
$1 = AED 3.67