Despite economic challenges and fewer construction projects in Romania, the country’s sole rebar producer and its long steel spot traders have kept their offers stable week on week. Meanwhile, according to bigger Romania-based traders, following the surge in spot market prices, local demand has improved slightly, resulting in some restocking with ex-Turkey imports. On the other hand, the situation has remained dire for smaller and medium-sized traders who have not noticed any changes in trading and have observed lower demand during the whole week.
As a result, Romanian traders in need of stock bought 5,000 mt of wire rod from Turkey this week at $625/mt FOB, which is equivalent to €605-610/mt CFR. Meanwhile, workable offers in the wire rod market in Romania have been quoted at €610-615/mt ex-warehouse, unchanged from the week before.
In the rebar segment, the only producer has opted to keep offers stable week on week at €620/mt ex-works. Similarly, most traders have kept their rebar prices stable at €610-635/mt ex-warehouse.
Aside from the purchase of wire rod, no other deals have been reported, but larger dealers believe that, if local demand progressively increases, imports will be possible in the coming weeks. This week’s rebar offers from Moldova and Bulgaria are unchanged from last week at €610-620/mt CPT and €650-670/mt CPT, respectively. Similarly, Egypt has maintained its rebar and wire rod offers at €595/mt CFR and €605/mt CFR, respectively. Furthermore, Greece has set rebar and wire rod prices at €645/mt CFR and €665/mt CFR, respectively. On the other hand, Turkey's average rebar price to Romania has remained unchanged at €590-605/mt CFR, with a €1 = $1.08 exchange rate and freight costs of roughly €25-30/mt.