While market conditions have remained unfavorable, Romania's sole flat steel producer and local traders have maintained prices unchanged, mainly because they realize that additional discounts or even decreases would not improve the situation. Furthermore, according to a representative of the sole flat steel producer, the situation as regards trade is particularly critical, and, as a result of this negativity, the producer has chosen to temporarily suspend blast furnace (BF) operations.
“Nothing has changed at all and it is all eerily quiet. The only requests we receive from customers are to cancel requests. Also, we decided to keep the BF idle for the moment and we still need some time to assess when to restart,” the representative of the producer said commenting on the current situation.
As a result, the domestic steel producer in Romania has kept hot rolled coil (HRC) and cot rolled coil (CRC) offers stable week on week at €665-670/mt ex-works and €795/mt ex-works, respectively.
Similarly, traders' pricing for hot rolled sheets (HRS) and cold rolled sheets (CRS) has remained unchanged from last week at €760-800/mt ex-warehouse and €855-870/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.
Moreover, the mill's domestic market pricing for HDG and PPGI is stable week on week at €825/mt ex-works and €1,115/mt ex-works, respectively.
Meanwhile in the import segment, according to sources, HRC offers have remained stable week on week. Currently, Ukraine and Serbia have continued to offer at €600-620/mt DAP and €650/mt DAP, respectively. Furthermore, ex-Ukraine offers for HRS and CRS have again been heard at €650/mt DAP and €740/mt DAP to Romania.