According to the order posted on the website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said, which brings the steel market under the regular official monitoring, brought relief to project owners and contractors in the construction market.

The order posted on the website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the steel has been brought under “the rule for regularizing the supply of provisions in extraordinary situations.” Consequently, those who violated the regulations will be punished with a fine up to SR50,000, shuttering the shop or branch where the violation occurred for 15 days and publishing the report of punishment in newspaper published in the region.

Some of the violations posted in the website are the refusal to sell steel, hoarding or hiking its price directly or indirectly above the price fixed by the ministry.

A leading businessman and chairman of the board of directors of the Jabal Umar Co. in Makkah, Abdul Rahman Al-Fakieh sid that Prince Naif's latest order would stabilize the local steel market. He said the present volatile steel market upset budgets of many companies and impeded construction projects.

Abdullah Al-Ridwan, a member of the Contractors Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “The new order will bring about steadiness to the steel market and enable projects to complete in time.”

He said there were also orders to regulate the markets of other essential building materials such as red brick and cement.

Commenting on the new order Hamad Al-Saeedan, a real estate broker, said the new regulations would attract more investments to the construction sector and pave the way to end the shortage of residential units and stabilize rents and price of houses.

“The unstable price of steel and other building materials has been upsetting the construction projects in the Kingdom in recent times,” he said.