Rebar breaks US$800 barrier in Kuwait

arabsteel – this week have seen a remarkable consumer price raise for rebar in kuwait"s market. thus, rebar reached kwd240 (us$827) per ton according to kuwaiti commercial sources.
this comes as a result of the high demand in the local market in line with the announcement of some projects included in the five-year plan.
rebar prices ranged last week between kwd215-220 (us$741-759), and the prices in kuwait are considered the highest in the arabian gulf region. part of this rise comes in the wake of kuwaiti dinar exchange rate deregulation against the us dollar that led to a value hike for the dinar. (arabsteel / 01/04/2010)

arabsteel – eng. muhammad al-madi, sabic ceo, linked the solution for the rebar price crisis in the saudi market with opening the door for imports and eliminating price differences.
eng. al-madi called for the elimination of multiple rebar pricing in saudi market by raising the local quotes to the level of global prices, in order to cover the rising cost of steel industry inputs which have seen huge increases as of the beginning of this year.
in a statement published by saudi newspapers, al-madi said that the gap between local and global prices costs sabic sar500 of losses per every ton of rebar as a result of sabic"s social commitment which drove the company to operate with 110% of its nameplate capacity, thus increasing its market share from 55% to 68%, as well as importing 200,000t of rebar last year to meet the saudi market needs.
eng. al-madi also pointed out that in order for rebar to enter saudi market and solve the problem there must be a 5-10% commercial profit margin for imported material priced more than sar2500 per ton. he added that saudi arabia has a capacity of 7.2 million tpy of rebar, which exceeds the market needs of 6.2 million tpy. (arabsteel /01/04/2010)

arabsteel - ezz steel, egypt"s largest producer, have announced a raise in flat and long steel selling prices. so, rebar prices were raised by egp820 per ton, thus the rebar price shall be egp4100 (us$710) as of april compared to egp3280 (us$568), i.e. a rise by nearly us$142 tax on sales included and egp780 (us$125) when deducting 5% of tax on sales.
meanwhile, flats prices were raised by us$97 on average for 1st grade products, so the selling price is now at us$719 before adding tax on sales. price of steel flats increased from egp3956 to egp4352 per ton applicable as of april. ezz steel attributed this rise reaching up to 25% for rebar to the higher average production cost up by 30% after steel billet prices gained about us$148 since february, rising from us$465 to us$613 fob presently. moreover, scrap price also gained us$83, from us$317 to us$400 fob. furthermore, a raise was announced for iron ore prices by 90% so that the current price is now at us$180. such cost increases have been reflected on final products pricing on a global scale.
in addition, turkish imported steel was up in local egyptian markets from us$520 c&f egyptian ports at the end of february to us$700 tax on sales not included, i.e. egp1000 (us$180) more per ton, coupled with an uptrend in steel prices in all neighboring countries.
ezz steel officials see that the average raise in rebar price announced by the company at 25% is still lower than the real increase in the inputs cost that amounts to 30% and less than selling prices in many arab markets at which the average rebar price is us$770, whereas ezz steel price is at us$710.
meanwhile, the egyptian market is expected to witness similar rebar hikes as local production selling price moved towards egp4000. beshay steel, who comes second to ezz steel in egypt"s steel market, announced rebar price rises to egp4150.
eventually, this current raise is considered to be the highest in steel market for more than a year. (arabsteel -01/04/2010)

arabsteel - united steel company "sulb" bsc (c), a joint venture between bahrain-based gulf united steel holding company "foulath" bsc (c) and japan"s yamato kogyo co., ltd, announced that it has concluded engineering procurement and construction (epc) contracts for the development of its $1.2bn heavy steel sections manufacturing project which will be the first of its kind in the middle east region.
the project aims to construct the first fully-integrated complex made of five modules: a direct reduction iron plant (dri plant) with a nameplate capacity of 1.5 million tons per year, two melt shops with an overall nameplate capacity of 1.3 million tons per year, two section rolling mills, one for medium & heavy section with nameplate capacity of 600,000t tpy, and the other for light to medium sections with nameplate capacity of 600,000t tpy. the "sulb" complex is located in bahrain"s hidd industrial area and will be the first to produce heavy sections in the gulf region, in addition to the whole range of light, medium and heavy sections. it is scheduled to start production by 2012.
the contract was awarded to kobe steel of japan and midrex of the usa for the sponge iron plant (dri) which has a nameplate capacity of 1.5 million tons per year and can be increased to 1.8 million tpy. the project is scheduled to complete within 30 months. another contract was awarded to sms meer and sms concast of germany and samsung engineering of korea for the building of the two melt shops and section rolling mills.
it is also worth to mention that the whole electric power needed for the project at 150 megawatt have been secured, in addition to the required amounts of natural gas.(arabsteel / 01/04/2010)