This week, following the Easter weekend, Romanian flat steel spot traders have decided to maintain offers unchanged because the market has not experienced any improvement. Nonetheless, some traders believe that, since demand is still insufficient, there may be a price decline or discounts in the coming days. Meanwhile, despite government financial help, Romania’s sole flat steel producer, which has been out of business for some time owing to unfavorable conditions, has not restarted production. The supplier was anticipated to resume operations after the Easter break.
Over the past week, the local flat steel spot market has remained stable, with traders quoting hot rolled sheet and cold rolled sheet prices at €725-750/mt ex-warehouse and €835-850/mt ex-warehouse, respectively.
In the import segment, Romanian buyers restocked with several small tonnages of hot rolled sheet from Ukraine before Easter, resulting in no trades following the holiday. As a consequence, Ukrainian suppliers' offers for HRS and CRS have remained stable at €660-670/mt DAP and €750-760/mt DAP, respectively. Meanwhile, according to sources, Romanian customers prefer to restock more from neighboring suppliers owing to the absence of the sole domestic producer, but due to production limitations suppliers are unable to supply as much as they would like to sell. On the other hand, HRC offers from Turkey have continued to fall compared to the previous week, with FOB prices at roughly $560-580/mt and freight costs at around €25/mt, resulting in price levels to Romania of around €515-535/mt CFR, down from €525-545/mt CFR the week before.