Articles
Neutral, dated analysis and explainers across Iran’s markets.
The Steel and Materials Chain: From Iron Ore to Rebar on the Iran Mercantile Exchange, and Its Footprint in Housing Costs
Iran's steel chain, from iron ore and billet to rebar, gets priced on the Iran Mercantile Exchange's industrial and mining hall. This lesson explains how that chain works and why a move in rebar prices reaches home construction costs only partially, and with a lag.
Mobarakeh Steel Hits Buy-Queue Lock Monday, Gains 2.99%; Still 8.1% Below Its Pre-Halt Price
Mobarakeh Steel (نماد فولاد) closed at its daily price-band ceiling on Monday, August 17, 2026, up 2.99% with buy orders at every price level and zero sellers, one day after touching its lowest price since reopening. The stock, which resumed trading August 8 after a five-month halt, is still 8.1% below its last real pre-halt trade.
Mobarakeh Steel Reopens After Five Months and Sits 10.6% Below Its Pre-War Price; Its P/E Is Half the Sector's (Wednesday, August 12, 2026)
Mobarakeh Steel's ticker (FOLD) reopened on August 8, 2026 after roughly five months of suspension, trading 10.6% below its last pre-war price, in a year the company posted a 33-year production record and net profit near 100,300 billion tomans. Its P/E is 4.4x, half the sector average, and the company still has not disclosed a precise war-damage figure.
Mobarakeh Steel Made Close to 100,300 Billion Tomans, Yet Kept Shareholders' Dividend Capped Over War Damage (AGM, Sunday, 2 August 2026)
Mobarakeh Steel's 2 August 2026 AGM, for a year in which parent-company net profit reached about 100,300 billion tomans, kept the cash dividend to shareholders capped. Management tied the decision directly to damage from enemy attacks, saying a larger payout would normally have been made. The Foolad symbol has also been halted for most sessions since 28 February 2026.
Iran Makes the World's Cheapest Rebar: It Exports an Energy Subsidy, While Its Steel Ticker Has Been Frozen for 146 Days (Friday, 24 July 2026)
Ex-works rebar in Iran runs about $365 a ton: cheaper than China, under half of Germany, a third of the US, not from productivity but from cheap gas and power melted into steel and partly shipped abroad. Iran supplies about a quarter of the world's direct-reduced iron and near 11% of the semi-finished steel trade, big enough that a Hormuz disruption lifted German rebar prices. Meanwhile the Foolad and Fakhouz tickers have been frozen since 28 February 2026. Not buy or sell advice.
Iran's Rebar Market Stalls for Two Weeks as Beam Prices Edge Up on FX Swings (Friday, July 3, 2026)
From June 22 to July 1, 2026 (1 to 10 Tir 1405), rebar prices at most Iranian mills held flat or fluctuated within a narrow band, while some steel beam sizes rose 200 to 2,000 tomans on exchange-rate volatility. Meanwhile, Furnace 8 at Mobarakeh Steel, damaged in air strikes months earlier, returned to production on June 9, 2026 (19 Khordad 1405), in just 45 days versus an initial four-month estimate.
