ID :
12068
Thu, 07/10/2008 - 16:08
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/12068
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AE steel prices soar, construction boom drains market
Dubai, July 10, 2008 (WAM) - Steel prices in the UAE have risen about 15 per cent so far this month compared as a construction boom in the Gulf Arab oil exporter has drained the building materials market, traders said yesterday.
A tonne of reinforcing steel bar (rebar), used in construction, fetched around US$1,550 yesterday, up from around US$1,350 in the last week of June,dealers said.
One executive from a Gulf steel producer said he expected prices to hit US$1,650 a tonne by the end of the month. The rising cost of building materials is helping fuel inflation across the Gulf, where economies areflourishing thanks to a near seven-fold rise in oil prices since 2002.
Gulf Arabs are investing heavily in real estate and building material suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand in the UAE, thesecond-largest Arab economy.
"Prices of steel and other construction materials have not eased, even for a single week, since the beginning of the year and I don't see any signs of adownward trend," one Sharjah-based trader said.
"What we have now is limited supplies of steel, higher demand from construction contractors and costs of manufacturing steel at origin aregoing up due to inflation in these countries," he told 'Reuters'.
A tonne of reinforcing steel bar (rebar), used in construction, fetched around US$1,550 yesterday, up from around US$1,350 in the last week of June,dealers said.
One executive from a Gulf steel producer said he expected prices to hit US$1,650 a tonne by the end of the month. The rising cost of building materials is helping fuel inflation across the Gulf, where economies areflourishing thanks to a near seven-fold rise in oil prices since 2002.
Gulf Arabs are investing heavily in real estate and building material suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand in the UAE, thesecond-largest Arab economy.
"Prices of steel and other construction materials have not eased, even for a single week, since the beginning of the year and I don't see any signs of adownward trend," one Sharjah-based trader said.
"What we have now is limited supplies of steel, higher demand from construction contractors and costs of manufacturing steel at origin aregoing up due to inflation in these countries," he told 'Reuters'.
