Egyptian domestic market rebar sales plummeted -43% on-year in January to only 354,200 tonnes, according to the latest Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) data monitored by Kallanish. This was the lowest monthly tonnage of sales since February 2011, directly following the Egyptian revolution.

The average price of January rebar sales soared 131% on-year to EGP 10,384.5/t (around $555 at January’s exchange rate). This was the first time in recent history prices surpassed EGP 10,000/t. It reflected the Egyptian currency devaluation following the pound’s floatation last November by Egypt’s central bank.

Rebar production in January declined -10% on-year to 476,000t, the lowest monthly level since October 2015. Crude steel production that month, however, soared 38% to 535,000t, according to worldsteel. This suggests more rebar was produced from captive direct reduced iron/domestic billet, and there may have been surplus semis that were exported.

In full-year 2016 Egyptian rebar sales inched down -1% versus 2015 to 7.04 million tonnes. However, production grew 3% to 7.19mt. Considering crude steel output fell -8.5% in 2016 to 5.04mt, this shows the extent to which Egypt stepped up billet imports last year. This was in order to offset crude steel output being hampered by gas shortages and foreign currency scarcity. Iran’s Khouzestan Steel was one firm to profit from the situation by hiking billet supplies to Egypt.