While the sole Romanian domestic mill’s local longs prices have been once again maintained, in the retail market decreases have been seen, as anticipated earlier. The fundamental cause for the drop in spot prices is the ongoing slowdown in domestic trading activity. In the meantime, local products still see some demand from traders who choose to restock with small local lots instead of with imports. Still, most traders believe that, if the outlook becomes more negative, the mill’s prices are likely to drop as well.
Over the past week, prices from the domestic rebar mill have remained unchanged from last week at €630/mt ex-works. On the contrary, Romanian rebar traders have chosen to decrease offers to €600-620/mt ex-warehouse from €610-635/mt ex-warehouse last week. Wire rod offers this week have been reported at €600-615/mt ex-warehouse, down from €610-625/mt ex-warehouse.
No import purchases have been observed lately, with Romanian traders unwilling to import due to poor demand in the local market. Rebar offers from Moldova remained at €620-630/mt CPT, the same as last week. Similarly, rebar offers from Turkey have remained at around €570-590/mt CFR to Romania, based on the exchange rate of €1 = $1.07 and freight costs of €25-30/mt. Meanwhile, ex-Egypt rebar and wire rod offers have increased by €10/mt from the previous week to €575/mt CFR and €585/mt CFR, respectively.