How to solve the price problems of cement and steel? – Tejarat News
According to Tejarat News, according to the public relations of the Development and Foresight Research Center, a meeting titled “Inflation containment in the housing construction sector: examining the effects of the supply of construction materials in the stock market” with the presence of Ruholah Akbari; Special assistant to the minister and the secretary of the National Housing Movement headquarters as the scientific director of the meeting and Iraj Rahbar; The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mass Builders of Tehran Province and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Center of Mass Builders of Housing and Construction of Iran, Reza Shakuri; Faculty member of Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tehran University of Arts and Alireza Sadeghi; The head of the Commodity Exchange Market Supervision Department of the Securities and Exchange Organization was held as speakers.
Five main factors in determining housing prices
Ruholah Akbari stated the five main factors in determining the price of housing and said: In principle 31 of the constitution, we must carry out activities in the construction and production of housing for the needy groups such as workers, and these measures should be in such a way that these low-income groups can also own a house. For this reason, to support the lower deciles of the society in building housing, the government offers land to the people in the form of a 99-year land lease plan, with this plan, the price of land is practically removed from the price of housing or can be paid over a long period of time. . Another issue is the discussion of labor in the construction and production of housing, which is relatively cheap in Iran. The third issue is the discussion of construction management by builders and mass builders, and the costs of housing construction should also be managed by using new technologies and new management methods. The fourth issue is the discussion of housing construction permits and government rights, which includes things such as insurance, taxes, and the costs of construction permits and licenses, which in these cases also have specific discounts in the law. The fifth issue is the discussion of construction materials, the important part of which is the costs of steel and cement, which are firstly the raw materials of these materials from Anfal, and in production and supply, they have direct and hidden subsidies for transportation and energy subsidies, and in case of optimal management of this The sector also reduces the cost of purchasing construction materials for the manufacturer and the final consumer.
In the continuation of the meeting, the secretary of the headquarters of the National Housing Movement added: in choosing a solution for the distribution of materials, creating transparency and preventing rent is a necessary condition, but it is not sufficient, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the mechanism and the realization of the legislator’s goals, including a fair and just price at the end of the supply chain for The manufacturer and the final consumer, especially for housing support projects, elimination of middlemen, easy access of manufacturers, coverage of the risk of price fluctuation that causes problems between the manufacturer and the buyer and dissatisfaction with the government are also among the other conditions of this solution. Therefore, there are substantive and formal objections to the supply of construction materials in the commodity exchange, and based on these objections, the mandatory entry of all these strategic and essential products into the commodity exchange or the reforms of the supply structure and mechanisms are suggested, which in the discussion of the structure of some Factors such as the conflict of interest in the shareholding and brokerage structure of the commodity exchange by steelmakers, banks and subsidiary commercial companies, which prevent the reduction of the price of housing construction materials, and in the discussion of the mechanism, the discussion of the method of determining the base price of steel ingots and rebars and the volume and basket of supply are among the issues raised. Therefore, it should be seen whether this method of supply of materials causes the elimination of middlemen or whether the method of supply itself causes middlemen. How much of a gap is there from the finished price of production to the basic price of supply in the commodity exchange and until the product reaches the final manufacturer at the end of the chain? Is it mandatory to supply all similar strategic goods in the commodity exchange in other countries?
In the continuation of this meeting, Iraj Rahbar; The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mass Builders of Tehran Province and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Mass Builders of Housing and Construction of Iran, while referring to the laws passed in order to boost the production of housing in support of low-income groups, said: All laws seek to support the low-income groups to provide housing.
Regarding the cost price of construction materials, Iraj Rahbar continued: We produce 70 million tons of cement and 30 million tons of steel per year, and in the field of cement and steel production, subsidies are paid in the energy, transportation and labor sectors to make Reduce the cost of cement and steel production. But when it comes to the price of construction materials, the manufacturers of construction materials or their intermediaries say that cement and steel should be priced based on global prices, and they compare the prices of cement and steel with global prices. But in principle, this analogy is not a correct comparison, because costs such as energy and labor in Iran are much lower than global levels.
Investigating the supply of construction materials in the stock market
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mass Builders of Tehran province added: These days, the way to supply construction materials in the stock market in the Islamic Council is in the stages of review and decision making, and unfortunately expert opinions are not used in this field. Rebar, which was bought at a price of 600 Tomans per kilo in 1390, was sold at 2400 Tomans per kilo in 1391, at 33 thousand Tomans per kilo in 1401, and now at around 23 to 24 thousand Tomans. This trend shows that even the supply of cement and steel in the stock market could not lead to their price management.
The former chairman of the board of directors of the National Association of Mass Builders of Housing and Construction of Iran, referring to the issue of industrialization of buildings, which reduces the price of housing construction, noted: We are the second country in the world in the field of engineering, and the answer to why we cannot build housing at the national level is in line with The set goals to advance is that government support in housing construction and production plans should continue by the next governments that come to work, and the next governments should establish a trust between the private sector and the public sector with the approvals of the government board. .
In summing up his speech, Iraj Rahbar said: I am against the sale of cement and steel in the commodity exchange, and instead, the issue of industrialization should be supported and trust should be formed between the government and the private sector.
In continuation, Reza Shakuri; As the second speaker, a faculty member of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tehran University of Art expressed his opinions about housing construction and the entry of construction materials into the stock market and said: We should see how housing construction for the vulnerable is here. I don’t agree with the government building housing for the people, and the government should empower people by empowering people with things like creating jobs and… so that people can build housing for themselves, because if the government wants to build houses for the people, the government should always be in The housing is being built. The model of empowering people to build housing is considered to be longer in terms of time, but a more stable model in building housing for vulnerable groups.
Reza Shakuri continued: In 2013, we had a construction budget of 55 thousand billion, and the government’s only commitments for the construction of Mehr housing were about 50 thousand billion tomans, and there was not enough budget for the construction of other construction projects, and this caused this project to be stopped in subsequent governments. and to continue the construction of Mehr housing, there will not be enough support from the next governments.
A faculty member of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tehran University of Art further said: If we want to build 1 million houses per year and use 200 kilos of cement for each square meter, we need about 20 to 25 million tons of cement to build residential projects. These calculations can be done on paper, but in practice, it is not possible to build this number of houses in one year due to the increase in demand for cement and steel for construction and the increase in currency prices and the increase in other construction costs due to inflation.
The faculty member of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tehran University of Arts, in the continuation of his speech, suggested that a tripartite committee consisting of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, and mass builders be formed, in which the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development as the trustee or employer, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development as The one who is the main audience in the matter of production and distribution, import and export of construction materials, and the mass builders’ association should play a role as those who must deliver the housing construction plans to their destination.
Is the price of cement and steel controlled by the stock exchange?
The associate professor of Tehran University of Arts added: The experience of selling cars in the commodity exchange showed that the continued supply of cement and steel in the stock market cannot control the price of cement and steel in the country due to the unclear mechanisms that exist, and therefore he is against their supply in the commodity exchange. I am
In the continuation of Alireza Sadeghi’s meeting; Head of the Commodity Exchange Market Supervision Department of the Securities and Exchange Organization, while referring to the situation of the commodity exchange in Iran, said: Iran Commodity Exchange was formed in 2007 from the merger of two agricultural commodity exchanges and the metal exchange, and it has a series of upstream rules. . Article 33 of the Law on Increasing the Productivity of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Article 6, Article 17 and Article 18 of the Law on the Development of New Financial Instruments and Institutions, Article 35 of the Law on Removing Barriers to Competitive Production and Improving the Country’s Financial System, Article 36, Paragraph C of the Law on Permanent Provisions of Development Programs The country is one of the important upstream laws of Iran Commodity Exchange.
Alireza Sadeghi, while pointing out the volume of transactions in the Commodity Exchange since 2007, analyzed the statistics of the physical market of the Commodity Exchange in 1401 and said: The number of suppliers of the Commodity Exchange in 1401 was 651, and their product variety was 1170. It was the type of product and the number of buyers was 19,118, which reached 84,708 including car buyers. The number of contracts concluded in the Commodity Exchange in 1401 was 542,371 contracts that happened in 236 trading days and the average daily volume of transactions in the Commodity Exchange was 498,824 tons, whose movement in the country was 21% of the country’s transportation volume. dedicated himself
Referring to the process of cement transactions in 1401, Alireza Sadeghi said: In 1401, as many as 55 million tons of cement with a value of 37 hemats were traded in the commodity exchange, and a total of 11,719 buyers were present in these transactions, of which 9,479 natural persons and It includes 2440 legal entities (80 percent natural persons and 20 percent legal entities). It is important to mention that before cement entered the commodity exchange, its participants were very limited.
Referring to the weekly process of rebar transactions in the Iran Commodity Exchange, he added: since the beginning of the 13th government, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Security, the base price of ingots and rebar has been calculated and applied independently of the exchange rate and global prices based on the performance of companies, which has caused an increase Or the price reduction in global markets has minimal effect on domestic prices.
The head of the Commodity Exchange Market Supervision Department of the Securities and Exchange Organization continued to point out the advantages of the Commodity Exchange Market and said: Discovering the fair price with the supply and demand mechanism, discovering the marginal price of the market and preventing the distribution of destructive rent and speculation, strengthening the foundation. Financing producers and increasing the possibility of implementing development plans, encouraging the private sector to invest and strengthening the capital market, eliminating middlemen and reducing prices for consumers are among the achievements of the supply of cement and steel in the Iranian Commodity Exchange.
In conclusion, he added: So far, the products of 74 cement companies and more than 100 steel companies have been accepted in the Iran Commodity Exchange, so that they can offer their products, and the most important advantages of conducting transactions in the Iran Commodity Exchange as an organized and legal exchange are low-cost competition. ; Therefore, the withdrawal of cement and steel products from the commodity exchange, while creating a lack of transparency, will create rent and corruption in the transactions of these products.
Source: Mehr