A surge in construction projects allied with global market rise to boost steel prices in Saudi Arabia by more than 18 percent this week, according to a local report.

Steel in the largest Arab economy was sold this week for nearly 2,735 Saudi riyals ($72.6) per tonne compared with around 2,296 riyals ($61.2) in mid 2020, showed the report by the Saudi Eastern region's chamber of commerce.

"The increase was a result of price growth in global markets and an upsurge in construction projects in Saudi Arabia," the Chamber's chairman Abdul Aziz Al-Khaldi said in the report, published by the Saudi Arabic language daily Almadina.

He said cement firms in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, sharply boosted production in the 4th quarter to cope with higher demand.

The paper quoted Majid Al-Saadi, a sales manager in a local cement company, as saying most firms ramped up output to record levels to offset a sharp decline in the first half of 2020 due to the spread of Coronavirus.

Most of their production targeted the domestic market following a sharp increase in demand for more projects, mainly for such giant projects as "Alqiddiya" fun city in the capital Riyadh, Neom City in Northwest Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea Development, Saadi added.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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