05/06/2010
Prices of imported steel facing a decline by 12%
Ministry of Trade and Industry has revealed the decline faced by the imported «Turkish and Chinese Steel » by 385 riyals per ton at 12 percent for today, due to the low commodity prices in the global market.
Mr.Saleh AlKhalil, Assistant Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs has explained for «Al-Eqtissadyah», that new prices had been presented on the ministry's website, noting that the company engaged in the construction materials import, including iron and through the ministry follow-up has responded to reduce the selling prices of rebar steel in the local market.
The ministry's announcement for this decline made by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry comes to provide the commodity to the consumer with reasonable prices, and to control the market manipulation.
Following are more details:
AlKhalil hoped to see lower prices in the local market, saying that the ministry is keen on that, considering the low prices of imported steel compared to the current prices will be an important step towards increasing the competition, which will benefit the consumer.
Steel Union referred earlier that Saudi Arabia's imports of steel rebar during the first quarter of this year amounted to 129 thousand tons.
The total imports of 2009 and the first quarter of this year is about 10 percent of energy for local plants licensed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (''Al-Eqtissadiyah'' 5/10/2010).
According to official information; the actual production of the three main factories in the Kingdom reached during the first four months of this year to 1.8 million tons, while sales reached 1.6 million tons.
These figures outlines the statistics for three out of seven factories in the Kingdom, with a total production capacity of steel plants of 7.3 million tons per year in the Kingdom.
