Since the outlook for the Romanian flat steel market has remained sluggish, the sole domestic flat steel producer and traders have decided to maintain the same offers they have been providing for nearly a month now. However, according to a representative of the sole producer, with the announcement of the restart of its blast furnace (BF), prices for flats are expected to increase which means movements may be seen in the domestic market in terms of offers and trade.
“We are resuming the operation of the BF next week. So far, no change in prices, but the expectation is mostly for an uptrend of HRC prices. Demand is still sluggish in Romania at the moment, but stocks at customers are quite low, so we expect restocking to start in the next couple of weeks,” the producer’s representative told SteelOrbis.
As a result, the domestic producer has kept its hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) offers stable week on week at €665-670/mt ex-works and €795/mt ex-works, respectively. Moreover, in the coated steel segment, the producer’s domestic HDG and PPGI prices are stable week on week at €825/mt ex-works and €1,115/mt ex-works, respectively.
Similarly, Romanian traders have also kept hot rolled sheet (HRS) and cold rolled sheet (CRS) offers unchanged week on week, at €760-800/mt ex-warehouse and €855-870/mt ex-warehouse, respectively. Nonetheless, market participants believe that, if the domestic mill takes action in line with the flat steel pricing in the EU, the market will respond in some way, but only in the short term because a bleak mood persists in the Romanian market.
Meanwhile, in the import category, Italy has offered PPGI at roughly €1,000/mt DAP, according to sources, while, as for heavy plates, Bulgaria has offered at €725/mt DAP and Turkey has offered at €630-640/mt delivered to Romania.
