Raw material prices and, as a consequence, the prices of final steel products, have since mid-last year seen recurring price rises to unprecedented levels. This included all types of steel, including long products, which are typically comprised of rods, rebar, beams, and oil & gas pipes, or flat products consisting of hot and cold rolled coils, zinc galvanized, and pre-painted steel coils & sheets.
The second half of 2020 witnessed recurrent and sudden increases in the prices of various steel products, which peaked last December, with prices of hot-rolled steel coils for example, increasing by more than US$ 100 per ton in a single month.
Riyadh: Since May 2020 onwards, a variety of long steel products, such as rebar rods, steel sections as well as oil and gas pipelines, along with flat steel products such as hot-rolled flat steel known as black steel rolls as well as galvanized and pre-painted Steel have witnessed a sudden price rise.
Riyadh, June 23, 2020: : As the implementation of the new customs duties started on June 20, 2020, which was approved by the Council of Ministers being imposed on select imports after careful review by relevant authorities, Engineer Rayed Abdullah Al-Ajaji, Chairman of the National Committee for Steel Industry, created by the Council of Saudi Chambers, lauded the resolution to increase customs duty on products listed by the General Customs Authority, including steel products up to the originally approved bound-rates as stipulated in the Kingdom’s Protocol of Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) signed more than 15 years ago.
Riyadh, 13th January 2020: : In a clear and positive statement made at the outset of 2020, National Committee for Steel Industry Chairman, Engineer Rayed Abdullah Al-Ajaji, highly commended the mandatory list of local product preference as approved by the decision issued by the Cabinet ..
Riyadh, 26th February 2019: : The European Union (“EU”) has imposed early this month a definitive safeguard measures on imports of 26 categories of steel products. Further to the active participation of the National Committee for Steel Industry (“NCSI”) all exports of steel products from Saudi Arabia are excluded from the scope of the EU safeguard measures.
Dubai, U.A.E., 12 December 2018: Saudi Arabia’s participation in the Middle East Iron and Steel Conference, the largest and best known conference MENA-wide, held in Dubai, U.A.E. during the period 10-12 December 2018, saw remarkable attendance by representatives of the Kingdom’s iron and steel industry, with the participation of the National Committee for Steel Industry, represented by its Chairman Engineer Rayed Al-Ajaji, its Deputy Chairman Advisor Mohammed Al-Jabr, and Mr. Abdul Aziz Al Hudaib, as well as the attendance and significant support of a number of government officials representing the Mineral and Metal Cluster of the Saudi National Industrial Clusters Program and the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Minerals.
National Committee for Steel Industry Chairman Engineer Rayed Abdullah Al-Ajaji said in a statement that “confining the term steel to denote steel rebar only is a widespread error caused mainly by the dominant consumer perception emphasizing steel rebar as a social good affecting all institutional and individual segments of society”, pointing out that “this misconception of steel leads to unsound reading, flawed analysis and ultimate fallacies”.
Riyadh: 20th March 2018: US President Donald Trump’s decision early this month to impose a protectionist tariff of 25% on US imports of steel and 10% on imports of aluminum stirred a number of countries and angered others, particularly Brazil, South Korea, Japan, the European Union, China, Turkey and more, while the decision excluded Canada and Mexico only. It is noted that Trump did not resort to World Trade Organization (WTO) legal antidumping measures which are available to all WTO member states, but rather decided to invoke an article of the U.S. Constitution addressing threats to “national security” to justify imposing the protectionist tariffs, claiming that any threat to the US national steel industry is a threat to US national security.
