Ezz Steel welcomes Ramadan with a price hike of $857 per ton

Egypt's Ezz Steel says it has raised its steel rebar price by 3.1 per cent to US$857.1 per tonne (LE4,800) in August after keeping the price fixed at $830.3 (LE4,650) for the last two months.

A source at Egypt's largest steel producer said the hike was due to global rises and the rise in imported prices for aluminium billet.

But figures for materials cast doubt on the claims of meeting extra cost. Global prices for billet only reached $710 per ton in July against $680 in June, a rise of 4.2 per cent, according to a monthly report from the Metallurgical Industries Chamber.

Ahmed Adel Sattar, a steel trader, told Ahram Online he thought the real reasons behind the hike were to shake the market out of a slump, refresh consumer demand and the onset of Ramadan. The latter typically shrinks liquidity and leads to higher commodity prices.

"Beshay and Al-Garhy [both steel companies] also raised their prices to $875 (LE 4,900) and $901.7 (LE 5,050) per ton respectively against $848.2 for Beshay and $846.4 for Al-Garhy in July,” he said.

Ezz Steel holds a 55 per cent stake in Ezz Dekheila.