Local steel dominates UAE market
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Since our Dubai property market update went to press in July 2011 we have been through what is traditionally the quiet time of the year for the UAE, further enhanced this year by the coming together of the traditional leave month of August and Ramadan.
Throughout the last quarter, Bahrain has continued a fragile recovery towards political stability after the period of anti-government hostilities witnessed in the first half of the year.
Quarter 3 is traditionally the quiet time of the year for the UAE, further enhanced this year by the coming together of the traditional leave month of August and the Holy month of Ramadan.
The UAE's steel production took control of the local market, increasing its market share to more than 70 per cent of the construction market, in view of increasing domestic productive capacity due to subsequent opening of new factories.
The opening of new steel mills during the past two years, and the increase in the production capacity of local plants have contributed to raising the market share of the local products, especially with local factories providing payment facilities, also playing a major role in the convergence of prices between imported and local steel, said Khaled Edilbi, general manager of Dubai-based Arab Company for Building Materials.
The decline in demand for steel products after the global financial crisis has helped local production cover a greater share of new projects, according to the UAE Contractors Association (UCA).
Moreover, steel imports into the country have also witnessed a noticeable decline recently, as local producers developed higher production capacity to meet the local demand, said Dr Imad Al-Jamal, Vice Chairman of the Higher Technical Consultative Committee at the UCA. Political turmoil faced by some countries in the Arab world has hit the import/export activity across the region, he said.
"The political situation in the region has also prevented UAE factories from exporting larger amounts of steel, which led to an increase in the quantities of available steel in the local market," said Dr Al-Jamal.
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