Though Romanian flat steel traders have tried to avoid large price drops in the current week, very high stock levels and extremely low demand, in particular, have exerted substantial downward pressure on their pricing. As a result, they have provided discounts for sheets, but at the same time there are some players who share a optimistic outlook for the short run due to the positive situation in the scrap segment. Additionally, the unstable pricing in the EU and Turkey for flats has led to Romania’s low interest in imports.
In the local market in Romania, domestic origin hot rolled coil (HRC) is stable at €770-775/mt ex-works. In the retail market, traders’ prices for hot rolled sheets (HRS) decreased by €25/mt over the past week to €900-985/mt ex-warehouse.
According to sources, in the import segment some offers have been reported from Bulgaria at €910-940/mt delivered for HRS and from Ukraine offers were at €700 /mt delivered for HRC. There are still few firm import offerings since Romanian flat steel stocks are plentiful and there is no urgent need for imports.
Domestic prices for cold rolled coil (CRC) in Romania remain unchanged week on week at €890-€895/mt ex-works, while in the retail market the workable prices for cold rolled sheet (CRS) are at €1,025-1,170/mt ex-warehouse, down from €1,070-1,170/mt ex-warehouse over the same period.
In the coated steel segment, domestic market prices for HDG and PPGI appear to have remained stable over the past two weeks at €1,000-1,005/mt ex-works and €1,450/mt ex-works, respectively.
