After a long break, the Romanian longs steel market has resumed business, seeing satisfying levels of activity, resulting in some price increases, particularly in the spot market. As a result, Romanian long steel spot traders have slightly increased their prices over the past week. while Romania's sole rebar producer has kept its offers stable. In the meantime, since trading activities have improved slightly from previous levels, Romanian traders in need of supplies have expressed interest in Turkish material and closed deals.
According to reports, Romania has lately bought a total of around 10,000 mt of rebar at $550-555/mt FOB from Turkey, estimated at around €560-570/mt CFR. Meanwhile, currently Turkish suppliers' rebar offers are at $550-560/mt FOB with a current currency exchange rate of €1 = $1.03 and freight costs of $25-30/mt, resulting in Turkish price levels to Romania at around €560-575/mt CFR.
Egypt, on the other hand, has the most comparable pricing to Turkish prices, with its offers for both rebar and wire rod currently at €570-575/mt CFR and €580-585/mt CFR, down from €585-590/mt CFR last week. In contrast, Greece's rebar and wire rod offers to Romania have remained stable at €610-615/mt CFR and €620-625/mt CFR, while the Bulgarian supplier has raised its offers by €10/mt to €620-630/mt CPT over the past week.
In the meantime, local Romanian rebar spot prices have increased to €590-605/mt ex-warehouse, from €585-605/mt ex-warehouse a week earlier. On the other hand, the sole domestic mill's rebar prices remain stable at around €580-590/mt ex-works.
Similar increases have been observed in the wire rod segment, with retail prices rising by €5/mt week on week to €585-595/mt ex-warehouse. Market participants, however, believe that the wire rod segment's outlook is still poor since demand is still not as strong as it is for rebar.