Although local Romanian flats demand remains stable though at low levels, Romania's sole flat steel producer has decided to raise its hot rolled coil (HRC) prices, while keeping its coated product offers stable. The sole producer has shut down its blast furnace due to the grim market outlook and maintenance works and has yet to restart it but is likely to do so in early February, according to market participants. Meanwhile, the main driver of the increased trend is the uptrend of prices from other European flat steel mills. Romanian traders have follow suit and raised their offers too.
The Romanian producer has raised hot rolled coil (HRC) prices to €725-730/mt ex-works, from €680-690/mt ex-works last week, while holding back cold rolled coil (CRC) offers.
In contrast, the mill's domestic prices for HDG and PPGI are stable week on week at €780-785/mt ex-works and €1,055-1,080/mt ex-works, respectively.
While the flat steel spot market has witnessed a similar increase due to the influence of the sole producer, the majority of traders have raised both hot rolled sheet (HRS) and cold rolled sheet (CRS) offers compared to last week. Accordingly, their HRS prices have increased by €10-20/mt to €780-790/mt ex-warehouse, whereas their CRS prices have risen by €25-30/mt to €870-880/mt ex-warehouse.
Although no import purchases have been observed, offers for HRS and CRS from Ukraine have been reported for deliveries to Romania at €740/mt and €830/mt, respectively.