North African long steel exporters are maintaining a healthy presence in the overseas markets and relatively reasonable pricing according to the current levels of demand and raw material price indications. Moreover, rebar and wire rod export offers from Algeria and Egypt remain quite competitive against Turkish prices, while imports to the African region are mainly dominated by Asia and Russia.
In Algeria, local producer Tosyali Algerie has resumed export offers after focusing for a while on livelier domestic sales. The current official export offers for December shipments of both rebar and wire rod stand at $585/mt FOB. Algerian Qatari Steel (AQS), according to sources, is offering at $550-555/mt FOB for rebar and at around $560-565/mt FOB for wire rod, also for December shipments. The latest domestic prices for both products in Algeria have been reported at DZD 107,400/mt ex-works or around $675/mt ex-works, according to the $1 = DZD 133.6 exchange rate, and excluding 19 percent VAT.
Egyptian mills have decreased offers by around $5/mt over the past 10 days to $575-580/mt FOB for rebar and $580-595/mt FOB for wire rod, for December shipments. Still, buyers are quite confident that additional discounts of around $10/mt are possible. In the domestic market in Egypt, Ezz Steel is offering at EGP 38,300/mt ex-works for rebar or around $685-690/mt ex-works, based on $1 = EGP 48.79 and excluding 14 percent VAT.
In Africa’s import longs segment, the most attractive offers are heard from China at $560-570/mt CFR West Africa, while offers from Malaysia and Indonesia have been reported at levels $10-20/mt higher. Turkey's offers are among the most expensive in the region - at $600-620/mt FOB for rebar and $610-620/mt FOB for wire rod, with the minimum freight to North African buyers at $20-30/mt depending on the buyer and supplier, SteelOrbis understands.
The Israeli market stands out with the highest import prices in the region. While some Turkish mills have restarted cautious sales to Israeli buyers, the volumes are not as big as previously. Their CFR-based rebar prices are assessed at $645/mt CFR LO with the freight at around $30-35/mt. In the meantime, Russia is offering at $630/mt CFR LO to Israel, while in other destinations the offers from Russian mills have been reported at around $530-535/mt FOB Black Sea. Ukraine has also been in the market with rebar offers at $680/mt CFR LO to Israel, which is not considered workable at the moment. Chinese rebar offers have been reported at $630/mt CFR. In the meantime, domestic rebar prices in Israel have been reported at $675-690/mt ex-works. "Turkey cannot supply in large lots to Israel as before, while it is impossible for Israel to import from most Arab states, and so the import prices for other origins are high," a trading source told SteelOrbis.