Despite efforts by Romania's sole flat steel producer to avoid price cuts, the continuous strong downward pressure on the flats market caused by the current oversupply in the market and the very weak demand have led to another round of discounts. Meanwhile, traders in Romania have decided to maintain their offers unchanged, but the outlook for the short run is pessimistic.
Over the past week, the domestic steel producer in Romania has decreased offers for hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) by €25/mt and €10/mt to €655/mt ex-works and €770/mt ex-works, respectively. Similarly, the mill's prices for HDG and PPGI have been dropped week on week by €10/mt and €50/mt to €800/mt ex-works and €1,090/mt ex-works, respectively.
On the other hand, even despite the negative market sentiment, Romanian traders have chosen to keep prices unchanged and monitor the situation. The retail HRS and CRS prices have remained the same as last week at €800-820/mt ex-warehouse and €960-1,000/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.
Furthermore, there have been no import offers and not much interest from Romanian traders during the week, because of the negative outlook for the domestic market and plentiful stocks.