Posted on 27 Jun 2019
Egyptian domestic market rebar sales slumped -15% on-year in March to 528,000 tonnes, according to the latest Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) data monitored by Kallanish. The average price of these sales fell -7% to EGP 11,637/tonne ($697/t).
Rebar production, however, inched up 1% in March to 597,000t. Crude steel output that month rose 5.7% to 706,000t, according to worldsteel data.
Egyptian rebar sales in the first quarter thus declined -10% on-year to 1.7 million tonnes. This compares to 0.4% on-year growth in full-year 2018.
Rebar output declined -11% in Q1 to 1.82mt, when crude steel production rose 10.3% to 2.12mt. This therefore reverses the trend seen in recent years of Egypt producing more rebar than it does crude steel and therefore needing to import a portion of its billet requirement.
In April the North African country implemented provisional safeguard measures on imports of semi-finished products, wire rod and bar (see Kallanish passim). This resulted in numerous re-rollers ceasing production as they complained they could not source billet competitively from domestic mills.
This has not stopped billet imports completely, however. Egypt sourced 35,000t of semi-finished product from Turkey in April and is expected back in the billet market imminently (see separate story).
Egypt’s largest steelmaker, Ezz Steel, reiterated in May its expectation that Egyptian authorities will implement measures in response to rising global trade barriers, as well as provide a more accommodating economic policy.
