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The early-stage adoption of higher-strength rebar grades has been gradually gathering pace and at the end of May, EMSTEEL said that it had supplied more than 200,000 tonnes of ES600 rebar to projects in the UAE.
A UAE-based market participant told Fastmarkets that the widespread adoption of ES600 rebar remained at an early stage.
“Currently it’s at about 5-7%, [but] I expect it to grow to 25% in two years,” the source said.
ES600 is being used instead of conventional 500B rebar in some applications, according to EMSTEEL although it did not provide any further details on the extent of substitution.
Recent contracted projects indicate a price premium for ES600 of around $15 per tonne over standard 500B rebar, the source said.
EMSTEEL told Fastmarkets that it has an installed production capacity of around 190,000 tonnes per month for ES600 rebar, enabling it to meet expected growth in UAE demand.
The producer said ES600 is being deployed in residential, mixed-use and infrastructure projects across the UAE and that its higher strength means engineers can increase the spacing of the rebar without compromising stability, adding that, in certain applications, smaller bar diameters can be used.
According to EMSTEEL, the grade can reduce reinforcement requirements by approximately 23% compared with conventional rebar, depending on structural design.
And its enhanced corrosion resistance makes it particularly suited to projects in marine environments, the company added.
Volatile material prices, long project timelines, supply disruption and tightening carbon regulation are reshaping construction procurement. Fastmarkets connects the markets behind your critical inputs, including structural steel, rebar, scrap, aluminium, copper, lumber, engineered wood products and carbon, into one trusted, transparent view.