Liberty Galati, the sole flat steel producer in Romania, has again failed to resume blast furnace No. 5 for the third time, and the company has not confirmed when it will begin or even whether it will be able to start. Meanwhile, the majority of market players believe that the producer's financial picture remains bleak, making it difficult to do anything, even purchasing raw materials for the start of production. Romanian flat steel spot traders, on the other hand, have maintained to give stable prices as last week, while continuing to offer some reductions to serious buyers, since business activity has been slow this week due to the election and currency issues.
As a result, this week in the spot market, workable domestic hot rolled sheet (HRS) prices are quoted at €725-750/mt ex-warehouse, unchanged week on week. Similarly, cold rolled sheet offers have remained stable compared to last week at around €835-850/mt ex-warehouse.
In the import segment, Romanian buyers continued to restock from the Ukrainian supplier in the absence of the sole producer in the country, purchasing a significant quantity in both segments. According to sources, Ukrainian supplier's offers for HRS and CRS have stabilized at €640/mt DAP and €730/mt DAP, compared to €660-670/mt DAP and €750-760/mt DAP earlier. On the other hand, HRC offers from Turkey have continued to decline compared to the previous week, with FOB prices at approximately $540-565/mt and freight costs at around €25/mt, resulting in price levels to Romania of around €505-525/mt CFR, down from €510-535/mt CFR the week before.