Ezz Steel has kept its metal prices at EGP 4,500 per tonne for December after enacting a cut of EGP 300 per tonne the month before.

According to leading Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial, this brings the average consumer price for steel in FY2011 to EGP 4,546 per tonne, 25% higher than in 2010.

According to a monthly report from Egypt's Metallurgical Industries Chamber, Global prices for billet dropped to USD 590 per tonne in November against USD 600 in October while scrap prices fell from USD 410 per tonne to USD 390 per tonne during the same period.

In November, Egypt's prosecutor general referred Ezz Steel’s founder mr Ahmed Ezz to Cairo's criminal court on new charges of money laundering. Mr Ezz was removed from his post as company chairman in May.

The magnate and former chief whip of the dissolved National Democratic Party is charged with laundering EGP 6.4 billion which he is accused of raising via illicit profiteering and the appropriation of public funds the two crimes for which he is already on remand.

Ezz Steel holds a 55% stake in Ezz Dekheila which saw its profits drop 38% to EGP 322.4 million in the H1 of 2011.

(Sourced from english.ahram.org.eg)