11:29pm
Monday 12 December 2022
I wrote – Sherine Salah:
Reinforcing steel prices at Ezz Steel and Suez Steel Company’s market have risen by around £1,000 per tonne, as of today, Monday, for the second time in December, according to Ahmed Al-Zaini, division head building materials at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, in Masrawy.
The price of reinforcing steel rose on farms early this December by around £800 per tonne.
According to Al-Zaini, the price of a ton of rebar, delivered to factory grounds at Ezz Steel Company, has risen to £21,450, and the price of a ton of rebar at Suez Steel Company has risen to £21,350 per ton, an increase of a thousand pounds, compared with the beginning of this December.
Al-Zaini attributed the price hike to the rising price of the dollar and shortages of crude inventories in factories.
He pointed out that the average price of a ton of iron for the consumer is around EGP 25,000 for the first time in Egypt.
Al-Zaini explained that the difference in price per tonne of iron between factory land delivery and the consumer, after the new increase, reached around £3,500, compared with a difference between £300 and £500 per tonne before, indicating that “the price difference is large, unjustified and has never occurred before.”
Egypt produces about 7.9 million tons of reinforcing steel and about 4.5 million tons of billets, while importing 3.5 million tons of billets, according to data from the Chamber of Metallurgical Industries.
