IREPAS in Monaco: The current crisis is a once-in-a-generation event

The 87th meeting of IREPAS (the International Rebar Exporters and Producers Association) was held in Monaco, on October 9-11, 2022, in conjunction with the SteelOrbis Fall ’22 Conference. There were 108 producer representatives from 40 different companies among the 407 registered delegates from a total of 48 different countries. There were also 69 registrations representing 43 different raw material suppliers. At the opening of the conference, Murat... Read More

Vietnam extends safeguard duties on billet, rebar and wire rod

Vietnam’s industry and trade ministry has announced that the country’s safeguard duties on billet, rebar and wire rod imports have been extended until 2023. The duty rates will gradually decline within three years. After March 2023, the duties will be zero unless the ministry decides to extend them one more time. Until March 21, 2021, the duties will stand at 15.3 percent for billet and 9.4 percent for rebar and wire rod. In the second year, the... Read More

ABEF provides information on new import regulation in Algeria

Algeria’s Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (ABEF) has provided information regarding the new import trade regulation, which is expected to come in force starting from January 1, 2020. According to the document, importers in Algeria should prioritize operations on FOB basis over CFR basis purchases and give preference to the local shipping companies, while previously it was stated that those were mandatory. Therefore, the importers... Read More

Egypt imposes provisional safeguard duty on billet and rebar imports

The Egyptian government has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it has imposed a provisional safeguard duty on steel billet and rebar imports for a period of 180 days starting from April 15. Egypt will collect up to 15 percent duty on billet imports and 25 percent duty on rebar imports. According to the notification made to the WTO, imports from developing countries shall not be subject to the proposed provisional safeguard measure as... Read More

Turkey reinstates ten percent duty on imports of rebar

It has officially been announced that the 10 percent import duty on imports of reinforcing bar to Turkey which was removed at the beginning of 2018 will be reintroduced as of January 1, 2019. The import duty on reinforcing bar in Turkey was first decreased to ten percent from 30 percent in July 2017, and then completely removed as of January 1, 2018.  Read More

Turkey cancels import duty on rebar

Turkey has officially cancelled the customs duty on imports of reinforcing bars effective from January 1st, 2018. The Turkish authorities had reduced the customs duty on imports of reinforcing bar to 10 percent on July 28th last year, on the back of complaints by the domestic construction industry. The customs duty on rebar imports to Turkey used to be 30 percent before then.  Read More

Algeria abolishes import license system

Algerian trade minister Mohamed Benmeradi has announced the abolition of the import license system in the country as of January 1, 2018, for all products, except for imports of vehicles.  It was declared that the system “has shown its limits”, it was a bureaucratic system that “lacked transparency”, and sometimes it has caused supply problems, leading to price hikes in the Algerian market. The aim of the license system was... Read More

Qatar issues guidelines for rebar imports

Qatar’s Ministry of Environment has announced guidelines regarding reinforcing bar imports to improve the quality of building and construction materials in the country. Accordingly, Qatar has banned imports of reinforcing bars below grade 500, and made mandatory a labaratory test report to import the construction steels. The Ministry announced to accept only those issued by the ISO 17025-certified laboratories with three month validity as... Read More

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