This week Romanian traders have decided to raise flats spot offers despite the general lack of optimism due to other European flat suppliers lowering prices and the scrap segment showing negativity. According to reports, the reason for this uptrend is that demand in the local market has improved more than previously. However, most traders feel that this gain is just transitory since internal issues such as the economy and the construction industry remain a concern.
“Since demand is now at a pretty good level, we raised the pricing. We cannot really complain but given the overall state of the European flats market and the intense competition in the local market, prices are still under pressure,” a trader told SteelOrbis.
As a result, in the flat steel spot market, the majority of traders has raised their hot rolled sheet (HRS) prices week on week by €10-30/mt to €790-820/mt ex-warehouse. Similarly, offers for cold rolled sheets (CRS) have increased to €900-950/mt ex-warehouse from €870-880/mt ex-warehouse last week.
At the same time, sources report that Romania’s sole flat steel producer has offered HRS and CRS around €740-750/mt ex-work and €830-840/mt ex-work to the local market. However, these claims cannot be verified before publication.
Meanwhile, in the import market HRC offers from Turkey have declined, with FOB prices of $650-670/mt and shipping costs of around €25/mt arriving in Romania at around €620-635/mt CFR, down from €655-670/mt CFR last weeks. In addition, reports state that ex-Ukraine has offered HRS and CRS for delivery to Romania at prices of €700/mt and €780-790/mt, respectively.