Egypt court suspends steel safeguard measures

The Egyptian administrative court today suspended the implementation of safeguard measures on steel billet and rebar imports, paving the way for re-rollers to resume overseas purchases.

Egypt started imposing provisional safeguard duties of up to 15pc on steel billet and 25pc on rebar imports, in April.

Re-rollers, which are dependent on imported billet, have been objecting to the decision from the start. Several of the larger re-rollers ceased functioning as billet imports virtually came to a halt, market participants said.

Integrated steelmakers — which can cast their own billet and were in favour of the safeguard measures — could appeal the decision, pending further study by the board of state commissioners, market participants said.

Should Egyptian re-rollers resume billet imports, CIS billet prices could find support. But end-user demand in Egypt is muted at the moment, so the decision may not have an immediate impact, traders said.