Considering the approaching summer vacation period, the long steel market in Romania has remained quiet, with weak demand persisting over the past week. As the market outlook remains largely unchanged, offers in both the rebar and wire rod segments have mostly held steady. However, sources report that lower-priced offers have begun to surface, particularly for large volumes of imports scheduled for the third quarter, which are now starting to weigh on domestic pricing as competition intensifies. Meanwhile, the import market is similarly quiet, with no new deals reported. Market players expect activity to pick up at the beginning of September.
“Demand was good at the beginning of this month, but it has slowed down in the past few days. I believe the large volumes imported for Q3 are finally starting to exert pressure on prices as competition becomes tougher,” a trader told SteelOrbis
As a result, the sole local producer’s rebar price has remained unchanged week on week at €585-590/mt ex-works. Retail rebar prices in Romania are also unchanged, at €580-595/mt ex-warehouse. However, some traders who had previously imported at lower prices are now offering material below the current workable levels, at around €570-575/mt ex-warehouse.
In the wire rod segment, a similar trend has been observed, with most traders maintaining their offers at stable levels of €580-590/mt ex-warehouse.
Meanwhile, in the import market, most offers have remained stable, with no fresh deals reported. According to sources, rebar offers from Bulgaria remain unchanged from last week at €605-615/mt CPT. Similarly, offers from Greece have held steady, with rebar quoted at €585-590/mt CFR and wire rod at €580-585/mt CFR. On the other hand, suppliers outside the EU have also shown similar price stability, both for August-September shipments. Egypt has decided to keep its offers unchanged, with rebar quoted at €485-490/mt CFR and wire rod at €500-505/mt CFR. Likewise, Turkish rebar offers have remained stable over the past week at €475-490/mt CFR, based on an exchange rate of €1 = $1.18 and estimated freight costs of €15-20/mt.