Steel prices in Tunisia — what was actually paid in 2024

Tunisia imports 235,600 tonnes of hot-rolled coil and exports more coated sheet than it buys. That is not a contradiction: the country converts. Coil comes in from China and Türkiye, is coated, painted or roll-formed inside a duty-free offshore regime, and leaves again for Europe and the Libyan market next door. The numbers below are best read as an input column and an output column rather than as a national appetite for steel.

Last updated 24 September 2026

These are declared border values, not offers. Tunisia reports them; we divide dollars by kilos. How it is done and where it breaks down →

• 428,494 tsteel imported (2024)
• 178,329 tsteel exported
• Net importer250,165 t short

Imports

Exports

What the Tunisia numbers say

• In Tunisia the band runs from 704 USD per tonne for wire rod to 1,366 for welded tube, circular, non-alloy, 1.9× apart — narrow by regional standards, because most of what lands here is substrate rather than finished product.
• Hot-rolled coil and plate makes up 55 % of inbound tonnage, which in a converting market means it is raw material, not consumption.
• The lane structure is concentrated, with China at 64 % of the top five on that heading.
• On coated sheet (galvanized and painted) the country pays 1,178 USD per tonne and receives 948, 230 apart — read it as a processing margin rather than a market spread.

Buying and selling into Tunisia

• Tunisia is a processing market rather than a consuming one on the coated line. It imported 72,500 tonnes of coated sheet at 1,178 USD per tonne and exported 100,300 tonnes at 948 — more out than in, at a lower unit value, which is the signature of coil bought as substrate, coated or formed locally and sold on.
• The substrate itself arrives as hot-rolled coil: 235,600 tonnes at 718 USD per tonne, 59 % of it from China and 18 % from Türkiye. Türkiye pays for its share with transit time rather than price — two to three days from Turkish ports against four to six weeks from Asia.
• The offshore regime shapes every quotation. Companies classified as wholly exporting import raw material free of duty and VAT, so the landed cost for a converter differs structurally from the landed cost for a local distributor buying the same coil at the same berth.
• The EU Association Agreement puts European origin at zero duty and gives Tunisian conversion duty-free access back into the EU, which is why the coated export line exists at all. Competing from outside that circle means competing on price against a tariff advantage.
• Radès handles the containers and is the country's bottleneck; Sfax, Bizerte and Gabès take breakbulk and bulk parcels with better dwell times. Coil for a converter usually moves through Bizerte or Sfax rather than Radès.
• Technical control at import applies to construction products, and payment terms have tightened with foreign-currency availability. A firm offer here is judged on tenor and on documentation as much as on the number.

Main supplying countries

Hot-rolled coil and plate (HS 7208)

Coated sheet (galvanized and painted) (HS 7210)

Angles, shapes and sections (HS 7216)

Wire rod (HS 7213)

How Tunisia import values moved, 2020–2024

Other markets

Questions about steel prices in Tunisia