Four Arab countries-UAE, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen imported 1.3 million tons of rebar from Turkey in Q1 2010 compared to 2.7 million tons in Q1 2009 thus showing a decline of 51.85 percent.
According to the information from the Istanbul Iron and Steel Exporters Association, rebar imports into UAE marked the highest decline rate from 926,839 tons in Q1 2009 to only 241,649 tons in Q1 2010. On the other hand, Turkish billet exports to UAE doubled rising from 33,510 tonnes in Q1 2009 to 198,439 tons in Q1 2010.
The volume of billet exports to four Arab countries-UAE, Egypt, KSA and Morocco during Q1 2010 amounted to 432,000 tons versus only 142,000 tons in Q1 2009.
Sections come third in Arab imports volume from Turkey as KSA, Iraq, Syria and UAE imported 158,000 tons of sections in Q1 2010 compared to 115,000 tons for the same period of 2009 growing by 37 percent.
Thus, the overall steel imports of four Arab countries amounted to approximately 2 million tons from Turkey during Q1 2010, the thing that makes Arab markets one of the most important destinations and target markets for Turkish iron and steel products.

Saudi Arabia has lifted the import duty on steel rebar to ease a shortage in the Kingdom as prices rise for rebar feedstock, a Ministry of Trade and Industry spokesman said.
“There are no import duties now on rebar because of a shortage in Saudi and we want to encourage traders to ship the steel here," the spokesman said. "This is a time when prices are high and traders don't want to pay duties on shipments.”
The kingdom wanted to prevent a shortage from delaying construction projects. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure as it looks to diversify the economy. State spending has provided a buffer against the global economic downturn.
The removal of import duty reverses a five percent tariff the Saudi government imposed in January and comes after the price of steel billet in the Black Sea rose.
Steel billet producers in the Black Sea region are among the biggest suppliers of steel billet to the Gulf region.
Billet is used to manufacture the construction material rebar. Rising prices for billet have pushed rebar prices in the Gulf to around US$800 per ton from US$550 earlier this year, traders said.
The government is also looking at ways to prevent traders stockpiling the metal, the spokesman said. It plans to inspect steel warehouses, he added

"We don't want to have an artificial shortage of steel because traders are hoarding and trying to sell it later when prices are higher," he said. Last year, the ministry lifted an export ban on local producers when it deemed supply was sufficient to meet domestic demand. The spokesman declined to comment on whether the export ban would be reintroduced.
International steel prices began to rise when the world's top three iron ore miners -- Brazil's Vale, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto which have the upper hand in the US$80 billion iron ore business decided to push for a revamp of the decades-old annual benchmark system.
They want to replace the annual price contracts with quarterly ones and link prices to the iron ore spot market. The decision led Oman's Jazeera Steel to cut production. Other regional producers have also considered cutting output. Saudi Arabia, one of the largest steel producers in the region, has the capacity to manufacture 8.4 million tons per year, according to industry association Arab Steel.

Abu Dhabi's Ministry of Economy has said it will investigate the steel prices which increased more than 60 percent in the last three months. 'The ministry is always keen to create equilibrium in the market between traders and consumers and will tackle the steel prices issue very soon,” said Mohammad Al Shehi, Ministry of Economy Director-General. ‘We will contact and meet steel factories in the UAE to investigate the issue of the high prices and will also monitor the import transactions of the previous month in order to check if there are any manipulation attempts in the market.” he added..

Newly formed Sulb National Co will start before the end of next year a 300,000 tons steel billet plant that would cover 20 percent of Saudi Arabia's deficit in the product, its top executive said.
Sulb expects a government stimulus plan coupled with the imminent launch of a mortgage law to spur steel demand growth after a relative lull in 2009 during the global economic slowdown.
Sulb, a family-owned firm, is seeking financing from both banks and state run Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) for the project which will require US$67 million in investment, Faisal al Haddawi, an executive with the firm said. He commented that we have already approached SIDF. We are looking for their support, and this project will help balance the huge deficit in steel billets and stabilise steel prices. He added that there is only one plant of this kind in Saudi Arabia and its capacity does not exceed 100,000 tons per year while our market imports at least 1.5 million tons of steel billets per year.
Sulb, with a capital of US$66.6 million, will use local scrap metal and import hot briquetted iron from Libya and South Africa to produce steel billets, Haddawi said and added that it plans to start production towards the end of next year.
German ABP Induction Systems will provide Sulb with the heavy equipment for the plant which will be located in Rabigh. Sulb will sell the product to steel firms in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia's steel production capacity stands at about 8.4 million tons and authorities have imposed restrictions on exports of both the commodity and scrap metal due to tight supply in the domestic market.
Hadeed, owned by state-controlled Saudi Basic Industries Corp, accounts for about half of domestic production capacity. Other main producers include privately owned al Ittefaq Steel Products Co and Al Rajhi Steel.
Hadeed raised prices of steel products earlier this month, the first increase since 2008, a move many analysts linked to a rise in global iron ore prices and a pick up in demand.
Saudi steel producers plan to expand their steel production capacity by at least 50 percent within the next three years, gearing up for an expected surge in demand from new industrial projects and demand for housing after the implementation of a long awaited mortgage law.
Haddawi said steel demand started coming back to 'normal levels after it declined in 2009'. Steel production capacities are still below their level in 2007 and 2008 because steel producers accumulated high inventories amid the demand slowdown in 2009. Haddawi said that the goverment spending coupled with the expected implementation this year of the mortgage law - which will spur the construction sector - will spur demand further and prompt steel manufacturers to come back to normal production capacities.