December 02, 2008

Qatar Steel warns against hoarding of steel

Qatar Steel, which has announced its decision to freeze second quarter prices recently, warned traders and end users against hoarding.

Mr Nasser bin Hamad al Thani director & GM of Qatar Steel cautioned traders and end users not to overstock in view of the price freeze.

Asked whether the company, would initiate any action against those found hoarding, he said that "We may supply directly to market as we had done previously in one or two special cases. The project developers or end users would have to inform them regarding the size of the project and their requirements as well as the dealers through which they had been sourcing steel.”

Qatar Steel has fixed the retail price for standard sizes of 16mm to 40mm at QAR 3,250 to QAR 3,300 per tonne, which is lower by more than QAR 1,000 than prices prevailing in other GCC countries.

Qatar Steel has estimated production of 2.3 million tonnes of sponge iron, 1.63 million tonnes of molten steel, 1.6 million tonnes of billet, 1.75 million tonnes of bar and 300,000 tonnes of wire rod coils this year. Qatar Steel is also constructing a new plant with a production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of molten steel per annum at an estimated cost of USD 700 million. The project also envisages production of some 800,000 tonnes of rebars.