Egyptian domestic market rebar sales soared for a third consecutive month, rising 21% on-year in September to 701,000 tonnes, Kallanish learns from the latest Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) data. This represented the highest monthly sales so far in 2016 after March.

Third-quarter-of-2016 rebar sales grew 22% on-year to 1.94 million tonnes, slightly short of the 2.02mt recorded in Q1 2016.

The average price of September sales surged 48% on-year to EGP 7,101/t ($800 at September exchange rate), making it the highest monthly price for over seven years. It reflected the weak Egyptian pound against the dollar, which made raw materials imports more expensive, as well as the shortage in foreign currency.

Egyptian rebar production in September, meanwhile, rose 13% on-year to 578,500t, coinciding with a drop in international billet prices that made feedstock for Egyptian re-rolling mills cheaper. Egyptian crude steel output fell -5% in September to 365,000t, suggesting billet imports were stepped up.

Egyptian rebar sales in the nine months through September nevertheless declined -4% to 5.31mt due to a very weak Q2. This fall was far less steep, however, than the -15% drop in sales after the first half of 2016. January-September production rose 2% on-year to 5.38mt. Egyptian nine-month crude steel output fell -19% to 3.52mt, as Egypt continued to suffer from gas shortages which restricted DRI production.

Egypt recently launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of rebar and wire rod from China, Turkey and Ukraine, with a preliminary determination expected by the end of June (see Kallanish 11 January).