This week, the impact of poor demand has been significant in Romania but local flat steel prices have remained stable. Additionally, due to surplus stocks and purchasers' expectations that prices may decline, business operations were strongly affected and slowed down. On the other hand, there were notable pricing discrepancies in the cold rolled sheet market, with some dealers choosing to lower their prices and others choosing to raise them.
“This week was quiet because the absence of demand has always been our major issue. There is currently no new deal, and mills are hesitating to accept customer bids for HRC [about €700/mt DAP] because they are significantly lower than their costs,” a source told SteelOrbis.
Currently, in the local market in Romania, domestic origin hot rolled coil (HRC) is stable at €770-775/mt ex-works, but the source indicated that for the bigger tonnages offers at €730/mt ex-works are possible. In the retail market, traders’ prices for hot rolled sheets (HRS) are also stable over the week to €900-985/mt ex-warehouse. Meanwhile, according to the sources, in the HRS import segment an offer from Serbia was reported at €810-820/mt delivered.
Likewise, Romanian domestic pricing for cold rolled coil (CRC) remains constant this week at €890-895/mt ex-works. As previously indicated, some traders have raised their prices, while others have dropped them. The feasible prices for cold rolled sheets (CRS) are currently at €1,055-1,120/mt ex-warehouse, which was €1,025-1,170/mt ex–warehouse in the previous week.
In the coated steel segment, domestic market offers for HDG and PPGI appear to have remained stable at €1,000-1,005/mt ex-works and €1,450/mt ex–works, respectively.
