Considering the impending Christmas break and sluggish demand, the majority of Romanian flat steel traders, who are aware that any price movement will not impact the market, have decided to maintain offers unchanged over the past week. Even if the market is already in holiday mood, some traders have decided to raise offers and try to achieve higher levels after Arcelor Mittal lately announced an increase in its hot rolled coil (HRC) offers.
According to reports, this week in the spot market, traders’ prices for hot rolled sheets (HRS) and cold rolled sheets (CRS) have remained stable week on week at €715-735/mt ex-warehouse and €820-835/mt ex-warehouse, respectively. However, as mentioned, certain traders, influenced by Arcelor Mittal's price hike, attempted to offer HRS and CRS at €740-745/mt ex-warehouse and €840-845/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the import segment, considering Romanian flat steel stocks are plentiful and that there is no imminent demand for imports due to the approaching holidays, there are few firm import offers. According to sources, Ukraine has kept its offers to Romania for HRS and CRS unchanged week on week at €650-660/mt DAP and €740-750/mt DAP, respectively. In contrast, Turkish mills are offering HRC on FOB basis at $535-550/mt, with freight costs of roughly €25/mt, arriving in Romania at around €540-555/mt CFR, up from €530-555/mt CFR last week.
