Saudi Arabian benchmark mill Hadeed has split its coiled long products pricing for September delivery, market participants informed Kallanish.

For domestic distributors with signed MoUs, half of the monthly quota of coiled long products, including wire rod and rebar in coils, will be sold at the same price as in August, SAR 2,535/tonne ($676/t) delivered, while the remaining 50% of the quota is being priced at a significant, SAR 200/t ($53/t) discount, making it SAR 2,335/t ($623/t).

Hadeed’s coiled longs deliveries in August were limited due to technical issues, therefore the announcement has raised questions. A sector participant suggested that the move could be in response to potential wire rod import attempts from China, prompting Hadeed’s price adjustment.

The coiled longs price adjustment on Thursday follows Hadeed's earlier-than-usual 11 August announcement of a SAR 40/tonne ($10.6) reduction for 12-32mm diameter rebar, bringing the price down to SAR 2,370/t delivered, with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, panic over sharply falling export prices in China was increasing across many markets.