Despite the lowering of flat steel offers last week owing to the unfavorable forecast for the European flat steel market, the sole Romanian flat steel producer has chosen to keep offers stable this week amid steady trade. Similar movements have been observed in the spot market for flat steel, where offers from traders based in Romania have not changed from the previous week. However, medium-sized and smaller traders have reported that demand has begun to decrease and has remained weak up to the end of the week.
Over the past week, the sole flat steel producer has hot rolled coil (HRC) offers stable week on week at €685-690/mt ex-works. As in previous weeks, it continues to supply cold rolled coils (CRC) only to regular clients who request them.
The mill's domestic pricing for the coated segment, HDG, and PPGI, has also remained stable, with prices at €785-790/mt ex-works and €1,085-1,090/mt ex-works, respectively.
Romanian flat steel spot traders, on the other hand, have continued to give stable offers, despite reports that demand has slowed and even though the sole producer lowered prices in recent weeks. As a result, offers for hot rolled sheets (HRS) and cold rolled sheets (CRS) remain stable week on week at €790-820/mt ex-warehouse and €900-950/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.
Meanwhile, import market offers for HRC, particularly from Turkey, have continued to fall, with FOB prices at around $620-630/mt and freight costs of roughly €25/mt, resulting in a price to Romania at around €600-610/mt CFR, down from €600-625/mt CFR in previous weeks. In the sheet market, Ukraine has offered HRS and CRS delivered to Romania at €700 and €770-780/mt, respectively. Furthermore, Italy has offered quarto plates of S235 grade at €835/mt DAP.
