Despite the interest demonstrated in the import market and expected to be observed until the holidays from Romanian-based traders, demand in the local longs market has been sluggish. As a consequence of the prolonged absence of local business activities, Romania's sole rebar producer has discontinued offers, but Romanian traders have maintained their existing offers. Winter and economic concerns, according to medium and smaller-sized traders, are partially responsible for the quite limited demand. Other than that, some bigger traders have substantially harmed business activity by bringing in lower-priced materials from other countries and selling them at lower prices in the local market.
The local producer has stopped giving offers for the time being although the previous offers were at approximately €600-605/mt ex-works. However, according to reports, it will resume offers next year. On the other hand, the majority of rebar traders have kept offers stable week on week at €570-585/mt ex-warehouse.
While the prognosis in the wire rod market has remained worse than in the rebar market and demand has remained relatively low, traders have opted to hold offers stable week on week at €570-590/mt ex-warehouse.
Furthermore, as regards imports, while sources claim that some Romanian traders continue to show interest, there has been no booking this week, though some offers have been heard. Ex-Moldova rebar offers have been maintained at €620/mt CPT, according to sources, with the supplier continuing to offer discounts at €610/mt CPT. Egypt, one of the most affordable possibilities for Romanian traders, has raised their rebar and wire rod prices from last week by €20-25/mt to €590-595/mt CFR. Similar to this, ex-Turkey offers based on mills' $600-620/mt FOB and freight rates of $25–30/mt have seen a rise of €20–30/mt, corresponding to €575–605/mt CFR at the current exchange rate of €1 = $1.08, as compared to €555–575/mt CFR in previous offers.
