On August 10, a batch of 500 tons of high-quality hot-rolled steel coils completed factory quality inspection, loading and assembly, and officially departed for domestic coastal ports to be shipped to Saudi Arabia. This batch shipment is another landing order for domestic steel products to deeply tap into the Middle East's rigid demand market in mid-to-late 2026. It confirms the stable competitiveness of domestic hot-rolled products in the overseas engineering field and continues to consolidate the foundation for my country's steel foreign trade cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
According to the person in charge of on-site production and foreign trade, the 500 tons of hot-rolled steel coils exported to Saudi Arabia strictly followed the SASO standards of the Saudi market and international general export quality specifications. They passed rigorous mechanical properties, surface accuracy, and dimensional tolerance testing throughout the process. At the same time, they completed the SABER compliance certification closed loop and can directly adapt to the needs of multiple scenarios such as local infrastructure and manufacturing processing in Saudi Arabia. This batch of steel coils was efficiently advanced from order docking, production scheduling, quality inspection, receipt to loading and shipping, ensuring the quality and delivery time of export goods throughout the process, demonstrating the refined production and efficient contract fulfillment capabilities of domestic steel mills.
As one of my country's core export markets for steel, Saudi Arabia has continued to increase investment in infrastructure, energy supporting facilities, and industrial manufacturing based on its economic diversification transformation strategy, and its rigid demand for steel has steadily increased. Data shows that China's steel exports to Saudi Arabia have maintained a high growth trend in recent years, and bilateral economic and trade exchanges are full of resilience. In the first half of 2026, the bilateral trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia has reached nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars, laying a good foundation for cooperation in the foreign trade export of steel products. Compared with the current situation of weak market demand and frequent trade barriers in Europe and the United States, the Saudi Arabian market in the Middle East has stable market demand and a good atmosphere for cooperation, making it an important growth track for domestic steel exports.
Since the beginning of this year, the domestic steel industry has continued to optimize its export structure, gradually reducing the export of low-end finished products at low prices and focusing on the export of high-value-added products such as high-quality hot-rolled coils, pipeline steel, and special steel to accurately match the needs of high-end engineering and industrial production in the Middle East. The smooth shipment of 500 tons of hot-rolled steel coils is not only a concrete result of the company's efforts to seize urgent orders from the Middle East, but also a microcosm of the industry's export transformation and upgrading. Against the background of the traditional off-season and weak supply and demand in the domestic steel market, the company has deeply explored high-quality overseas markets such as Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, effectively hedging the pressure on domestic sales and easing the inventory turnover pressure of enterprises.
Industry insiders said that as various key projects in Saudi Arabia continue to be implemented, local steel procurement demand will continue to be released. Domestic high-quality steel is expected to continue to expand its market share in the Middle East with its advantages of high cost performance, stable quality and efficient delivery. Domestic steel companies will also continue to focus on high-end overseas demand, continue to optimize the structure of export products, standardize export compliance procedures, continue to expand overseas markets along the “Belt and Road”, and promote the steady and high-quality development of steel foreign trade business.