Informed sources said that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has so far received three requests from cement companies and one request from a rebar company to obtain a license to allow them to export their products outside the Kingdom. This follows the recent issuance of the Supreme Order approving the permission for cement factories and rebar producers under a license issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to export more than the local market's need for their products, in which the ministry asked all interested enterprises to review the General Department of Supply at the Ministry's Agency for Consumer Protection to obtain an export license.

According to the sources, the competent government agencies are working to coordinate according to the necessary controls and conditions to obtain an export license that ensures sufficient supply and inventory in the local market.

The Ministry of Commerce stipulates that to obtain a cement export license, the exporter must be a licensed factory, and the supply of cement in the local market meets the needs of the market as determined by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as well as the strategic stock of each factory of clinker material not less than 10 percent of its annual production, in addition to the amount previously imported and benefited from government support, provided that the import has not exceeded a year.

The energy price differential on cement between local and international prices will also be collected as determined by the Ministerial Supply Committee, noting that the permission to export comes at the discretion of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which will be suspended if the Ministry deems the need to import cement.

With regard to the export of steel and its products, the Ministry stipulated that the factory must be licensed, that the export is limited to final products that meet the sufficient amount of local value added (40% of the value of the final products), that the supply of products to be exported meets the needs of the local market as determined by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and that the energy price difference on steel and its products between local prices and international prices - when appropriate - as determined by the Ministerial Supply Committee.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry.