Market participants do not expect significant declines in the volumes of steel billet imported in Egypt following their government's decree that denies traders the ability to import such material, Fastmarkets has learnt.
On March 5, Egypt's ministry of trade and industry issued a directive permitting only entities with a manufacturing license to import billet.The country has capacity to produce around 12 million tonnes per year of rebar and a similar volume of billet. Total crude steel output in the country was only 7.8 million tonnes in 2018, however, according to the World Steel Association.The government's move was not expected to reduce the total import...