UAE-based Emirates Steel Industries (ESI) has announced its price for the Saudi Arabian market, which has recently been one of the company’s key sales destinations aside from its domestic business activities.
ESI has decided to keep its wire rod prices for Saudi Arabia stable compared to last month at $550/mt (AED 2,020/mt) CPT Riyadh or Dammam for February production. As reported previously, the company sold around 20,000 mt of wire rod to Saudi Arabia at this price in the previous sales round.
Wire rod offers from Egypt’s Ezz Steel, one of the key foreign wire rod sellers to Saudi Arabia, are still standing at $540/mt CFR for March deliveries to this destination, with small tonnages sold since last week, SteelOrbis has learned.
Wire rod demand is rather lively in Saudi Arabia and local sources say there is a certain lack of allocation from the local producer. “There is shortage from SABIC; at least they didn’t dispatch the regular quantities to their distributors,” a source said. In the rebar segment, business activity is rather strong as well. “The market is becoming dry and I expect big shortages in February,” a local trader mentioned.