Iran's Esfahan Steel Co (Esco) has shipped its first rebar cargo to the UK, a company source told S&P Global Platts Tuesday.
The deal, for 5,000 mt with a trader at $505/t FOB southern port, was concluded in October.
"The cargo is due in late January 2018 and is now ready to be shipped," the company source said.
Additional contracts are nearly finalized for the same destination, while another cargo is under negotiation for Scotland, he added.
This comes after Esco became the first Iranian steelmaker to obtain UK Cares certification, confirming its billet and rebar conforms to BS 4449:2005 standard Grade B500B.
Esco is Iran's largest producer of long products and the only Iranian steel producer using blast furnaces of which it has three -- one (with 1 million mt/year capacity) is idle as a result of low demand in the domestic market.
About 50% of the company's output has been exported during in the first nine months of the current Iranian year ending March 2018 to Belgium, the Netherlands, Sudan, Egypt, Thailand, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, and other parts of the Middle East, according to the company.
The European Union announced definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled coil from Iran and three other countries on October 2017, but exports of semi-finished products have continued.
It is the first rebar cargo which to be shipped to a European country from Iran, a Tehran-based steel trader told Platts Wednesday.
