An official source at the Trade and Industry Ministry has ruled out the possibility of levying additional fees on imported Turkish steel to protect local industry as had previously been requested by local steel producers.

According to the source, such a move would prompt Turkey to retaliate by imposing its own protection fees on imported Egyptian commodities, which would serve to jeopardize bilateral economic relations.

Officials from local steel companies, for their part, said that the ministry canceled a scheduled meeting at which they had planned to finalize procedures for a lawsuit to be raised against importers that are flooding the local market with imported Turkish steel rebars.

In a related development, local steel magnate Mr Khaled el-Borini said that global prices for steel pellets had fallen from USD 500 per tonne to USD 470 per tonne which should serve to reduce local prices for finished products. He said that "Local producers had no justification for raising their prices.”