Take -off prices for reinforcement in Egypt is caused by oscillations of the dollar exchange rate

In January 2013, the prices for reinforcing steel in Egypt rose by more than 10%. Prices are also rising for the rest of the metal production, especially imported. About this writes Daily News Egypt.

Egyptian steel companies raised steel prices to 4850 EGP (Egyptian pounds) in January, compared with 4400 EGP in December 2012. This is due to the growth of the dollar, Egyptian analysts say.

"About 95% of the components and, accordingly, the cost of production of steel comes by import. We see that the steel industry of Egypt is entirely dependent on the current exchange rate," says Mohamed Hanafi, Executive Director of the Egyptian Egyptian Industry of the Egyptian Industry.

Experts and traders in Egypt call on to cancel the protectionist import duties for metallurgical raw materials and steel introduced last year by the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade of Egypt (MIFT).

As you know, MIFT introduced at the end of 2012 a duty of 6.8% (at least 299 EGP) per ton of imported steel for a period of 200 days. However, the innovation did not affect the volume of implementation ABB magnetic starters local dealers of an electrical concern.

Meanwhile, Hanafi said that he was not sure that the price of imported steel was the reason for the sharp increase in prices. He believes that the monopolization of the steel market in Egypt should be thanked for taking off prices for metal.

At the same time, a huge increase in metal prices caused a decrease in sales. "When customers see a price increase of more than 500 EGP, they put off the purchase until better times," says Hossam El Hawei, metal trader.