There has been no significant increase in demand from end users in the UAE long product market, contrary to expectations. The construction segment is still inactive despite the resumption of some projects after Ramadan. In such situation, trading companies, who have moderate stocks, are mostly refraining from purchases of import material, having no urgent need to re-stock.
Local producers have already sold the whole volume of September material, while prices for October products are to be announced next week. Meanwhile, market players forecast domestic prices to stand still. Emirates Steel Industries (ESI), the largest rebar producer in the UAE, has sold most of its September output to the domestic market, while Conares Metal Supply has shipped more than half of its production to Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Kuwait).
At the same time, square billet can be imported to the UAE at $725-740/t C&F, which is unacceptable to local re-rollers amid current domestic prices for rebar.
Turkish suppliers have raised prices for rebar by $5-15/t, to $730-745/t C&F Dubai over the month. However, an excess of import material has appeared in the market since UAE traders booked large volumes of Turkish products in late July-early August (about 170,000 t). As a result, representatives of local companies report that there will be no purchases of Turkish products in the next two weeks even if prices go down, and deals are forecast to resume no earlier than in the first half of October
Meanwhile, traders have already raised the lower end of the price range for rebar from Turkey and ESI by $8/t in the stockist market. As a result, Turkish products are available from stocks by about $30/t higher than in mills’ market (excluding 5% import duty).
( Source: www.metalexpert-group.com )