This week's long steel prices in Romania seem to be stable, but this trend does not seem likely to continue because of the persistence of unfavorable conditions including poor demand, continuous scrap price declines, and surplus stocks. Nevertheless, a few traders prefer to sell at low prices, even at a loss, in order to reduce their stocks.
“In the sellers' section, prices have stalled slightly. Everyone is trying to assess the situation because the market is complex, but there is nothing coming from the demand side because buyers are using stocks they have purchased previously and buying them as needed. So, we do not make a profit due to minimum orders and we are reducing prices because we need to sell our stocks somehow,” a source told SteelOrbis
According to sources, Romanian domestic retail rebar prices are now holding at €710-745/mt ex-warehouse, the same as reported last Friday, while other traders are attempting to destock and are therefore selling at lower-than-workable levels around €680-700/mt ex-warehouse.
For over a month, Romanian rebar traders have not been much interested in imports, being overstocked. The latest prices, according to sources, have been coming from Ukraine at €690-710/mt delivered, Moldova at €727/mt delivered and Italy at €670/mt delivered, while Greece’s prices have been reported at €705/mt delivered, from around €780-800/mt delivered last week.
This week, no definite offers from Turkey have been received, “Turkey is not a choice now because the import season is only open from July 1 to October 1. Because the quotas will most likely be exceeded, there will be a 25 percent tax on top,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
Nonetheless, based on mills′ pricing of $620-625/mt FOB and freight costs of $25-30/mt, the levels should be about €590-600/mt CFR at the €1 = $1.05 rate, which is fairly acceptable as a quota-restricted offer for this origin. However, due to overstocks, Romanian importers are reluctant to consider imports.
In the wire rod market, local prices remain just like last week, with workable prices also around €725-755/mt ex-warehouse, while some aggressive sellers seek to destock and sell at around €690-750/mt ex-warehouse. On the import side, Romanian traders are once again not in need of replenishing, although the most recent offers from Greece were coming in at €710/mt delivered, down from €800/mt delivered last week.
