The sole Romanian flat steel producer and domestic traders, who attempted to maintain prices stable last week despite persistently weak end-user demand and financial difficulties, have this week decided to lower their prices in response to the adverse outlook for the market. According to market participants, the market would fall further since trade has failed to pick up and has remained extremely quiet, while customers also expect additional declines due to negative global sentiments.
“Demand is very low, so pricing pressure will be maintained and buyers also expect even lower levels. Accordingly, we have lowered our expectations,” a representative of the sole domestic producer told SteelOrbis.
Over the past week, the domestic flat steel producer in Romania reduced hot rolled coil (HRC) prices by €40/mt to €790/mt ex-works and cold rolled coil (CRC) prices to €885/mt ex-works from €970/mt ex-works. Likewise, traders' pricing for hot rolled sheets (HRS) and cold rolled sheets (CRS) has gone down by €20/mt and €40-70/mt week on week to €860-870/mt and €980-1,010/mt respectively, both on ex-warehouse basis.
Furthermore, the mill's domestic market pricing for HDG has fallen to €1,030/mt ex-works from the previous week's price of €1,115/mt ex-works, while its PPGI price has stayed unchanged at €1,280/mt ex-works.
In the import segment, according to sources, there have been offers for HRC from Serbia at €800/mt DAP, while South Korea and India have been offering at €725-750/mt CIF Constanta.