Flat steel buyers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia preferred to delay their purchasing this week because end-user demand was not strong and buyers were still not used to the newly imposed 5% VAT regime, sources told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday January 16.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia both imposed a 5% rate of VAT with effect from January 1, 2018.UAEHot-rolled coil (HRC) was offered at $590-610 per tonne cfr from China, and a buyer was bidding $580 per tonne cfr. India did not send any new offer prices."Demand is not good because the market is still confused about the VAT implementation," a market participant said."Nobody wants to buy. The market...