Rebar prices rose twice during May with predictions of a third increase

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Traders in the iron sector expected that rebar prices would rise in the local market for the third time during May due to the expected new rise in the prices of raw materials globally.

According to these dealers, iron prices in the local market rose twice during May, with a total of about EGP 500 per tonne, affected by the increase in international prices of raw materials during the last period.

Ahmed Al-Zaini, head of the Building Materials Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said in press statements that it is expected that the prices of reinforcing iron in the local market will increase during the coming period for the third time this month. Mohamed Hanafi, Director General of the Chamber of Metallurgical Industries of the Federation of Industries, agreed with Al-Zaini, saying that it is expected that crude prices will continue to rise on the global stock exchanges and thus will result in an increase in iron prices in the local market.

Al-Zaini added that the building materials market has been suffering from a great recession for a long time now, indicating that the market does not bear all these increases in steel prices. According to Ahmed Al-Zaini, the price of a tonne of iron in handing over the factory land to the Ezz Steel Company has reached EGP 14 now after the recent increases, and the price of a tonne of iron in the Egyptian Steel Company has increased to EGP 14,100.

The price of a tonne of iron at Beshay Steel Company rose to EGP 14,050, and the price of a tonne of iron at Al-Garhi Iron and Steel Company increased to EGP 13,800. The price of iron ore jumped in the global stock exchange during the past few days, after the increase in demand for crude.

Mohamed Hanafi said, in press statements, that the price of scrap iron jumped to $488 per tonne, and the billet to $660 per tonne compared to $426 per tonne of scrap and $595 per tonne of pallet at the end of April.

According to the Chamber of Mineral Industries data, Egypt produces about 7.9 million tonnes of rebar and about 4.5 million tonnes of billet, while it imports 3.5 million tonnes of billet. The successive rises in the price of reinforcing steel came despite the stagnation in the construction market in Egypt after the Sisi government closed building permits several months ago and began implementing demolitions of homes it said were unlicensed.