Romania-based retailers traders have decided to react to the issue of higher energy costs in Europe and have boosted their flats prices over the past week. In the meantime, Romania’s sole local flat steel producer has decided to maintain its previous price positions.
“We should wait until the market catches up with us since we have already risen far quicker. Although certain traders are attempting to profit from the [energy price] surge, there is currently no substantial consumer demand,” a source told SteelOrbis.
The domestic steel producer in Romania is still offering its October hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) at €820/mt ex-works and €930/mt ex-works respectively, the same as a week ago. The mill’s domestic market pricing for HDG and PPGI in the category of coated steel has been maintained at €1,010/mt ex-works and €1,250/mt ex-works, respectively, unaltered from previous weeks.
On the other hand, traders' prices for hot rolled sheets (HRS) have jumped to €875-1,040/mt ex-warehouse, up from €845-900/mt ex-warehouse last week. Furthermore, the feasible price for cold rolled sheets (CRS) has climbed by €50-70 to €1,045-1,090/mt ex-warehouse. Due to the substantial supply of stocks, there is a dearth of offers in the import area. Only in the HRC segment was there an offer from Slovakia at €960/mt DDP Galati.
Although traders have increased their offers, market expectations are rather pessimistic, taking into account ongoing worldwide inflation, currency volatility, and an absence of demand, which continue to be the most significant and negative factors affecting the market. “We increased the retail flat steel prices as a result of the action taken by European and Romanian flat steel producers during the past weeks to raise their prices, but owing to the lack of demand and also based on the reports of the Romanian mill's lack of business activity, unfortunately we foresee that the prices of flat steel will fall over the coming weeks,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
