Liberty Steel is looking to resell iron ore from Constanta port in Romania originally destined for its Galati blast furnace.
The company recently idled its only operational blast furnace in Romania, citing inclement weather in the Black Sea and low water levels on the Danube as reasons for the stoppage. The unit was meant to restart on 24 October but remains idle.
Some market participants said the company looking to sell iron ore was an indicator that the furnace would not restart. Liberty has also been importing slab via traders to feed its rolling lines of late, and recently sold some carbon credits.
Liberty's Ostrava blast furnace is also off line because of weak demand, and it recently idled the largest coke oven at that site as it believes it can buy merchant material more cheaply. The company has been in talks with power suppliers to the works as it is behind on payments.
Several sources confirmed Liberty was looking to offload ore from Constanta, although the amount on offer was not clear. One suggested it was looking to offload 160,000t. The company's Romanian iron ore supply comes via a trader.
While iron ore prices are fairly high — with Argus' benchmark 62pc Fe ICX index at $123.60/dmt today — spot buyers are few and far between, with most European producers operating at low utilisation rates amid weak steel demand.
Liberty supplies Dunaferr with slab from Galati, but everything at its Hungarian unit has been idled except the coke ovens, which are running at technical minimums.
Liberty declined to comment.
