According to Taurus Securities, the manufacturers have increased rebar prices by Rs5,000 per ton once again. This is in addition to the earlier increase of Rs5,000 per ton last week.
Current rebar prices are in the range of Rs160,500 to Rs162,500 per ton. According to the brokerage house, since November 2020, the rebar prices have gone up by 38%.
The government, understanding the importance of construction industry for economic growth, had earlier announced a special package for its revival, recalled Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) Chairman Fayyaz Ilyas in a statement.
"But when construction activities resumed, the cartel of steel manufacturers raised prices of steel bars - an important component for construction - many times, making construction more costlier," he added.
"We demand that the federal government abolish regulatory duty and additional regulatory duty on the import of steel bars to stabilise their prices so that construction industry could be saved from collapse."
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers (PALSPA) Secretary-General Syed Wajid Bukhari said that the reason behind the price hike was a consistent increase in international prices of steel scrap.
"Currently, the prices of scrap in the international market are $550 per ton, whereas a few months ago, they were $500 and even lesser before that," he said. "This is how they impact local steel prices. We have to set local rates according to the international prices."
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