The war of rebar has again broken out between Ezz Steel, Beshay Steel and importers. Ezz has reduced its prices by LE350 taking the ex-factory to LE3,400 a ton (LE3500 for consumers in Cairo and the Delta). This price gradually increases according to the distance until it reaches LE3,575 per ton in Aswan. As soon as Ezz announced its prices for February, Beshay backtracked on its last week's prices and decided to reduce the price of local rebar from LE3,700 to LE3,500 and imported rebar from LE3,500 to LE3,300. Sources from the rebar market have stressed that the prices war will lead to serious damage to investment factories, which will have to sell a ton of rebar for LE3,400 in a bid to win a part of the "market's cake". As for importers, they may have to reduce the quantities they import.
The price of Turkish rebar ranges between LE3000-LE 3100 a ton. This means that the profit margin would be very small after the recent reductions. The importers will be severely affected because the quantities they have imported (350,000 tons) are more than the demand. Therefore, they may have to reduce prices to about LE3,100 instead of LE3,400 a ton, the sources said. For its part, Misr National Steel has announced that it will stop its production in February to carry out maintenance of the factory. The company has agreed with agents and distributors to provide them with imported rebar rather than domestic production. El-Garhy Steel had contracted 130,000 tons of Turkish rebar for LE2,800 a ton. It is sold in the market for LE3,600-LE3,800 per ton. This price will decline in February to LE3,300. El-Garhy announced that the production of the second factory will be sold for LE3,400 to wholesale traders and LE3,600 to consumers.
For his part, Board Chairman of Suez Steel Ibrahim al-Komy said small factories risk halting their work due to imported rebar, calling for imposing customs duties on imported shipments to protect the national industry.
