Galvanized coil prices stable with slight increase

SteelOrbis Shanghai The market price of galvanized coils kept stable with a slight increase throughout the week. The trading volume increased a little and market inventories kept unchanged compared with last week. Some steel mills released their new ex-factory price lists. This week, the increase of the downstream demand and the low level of galvanized coil market inventories slightly strengthened downstream customer's purchases. The market trading volume enlarged slightly and the galvanized coil market price continues keeping the stable trend. The new ex-factory price list of some steel mills released this week kept unchanged or slightly increased compared with before. It played a certain role on the stability of galvanized coil market price. Although the export price was down in July, it did not influence the growth of galvanized coil export volume. So, the domestic market inventories of galvanized coil still remained at a low level and this was also favorable regarding the balance of supply and demand in domestic market. On the other hand, the zinc price increased greatly in the domestic market this week. The zinc price is currently RMB 32,000/mt ($4,030), up RMB 2,000/mt ($252) compared with week 35. The impact of zinc price on galvanized coil prices is obvious, considering that it is one of the main raw materials of galvanized coil. On September 7, the average market price of 1.0 mm galvanized coil is RMB 5,543/mt ($698), up RMB 16/mt ($2) compared with August 31; that of 0.5 mm galvanized coil is RMB 5,797/mt ($730), up RMB 27/mt ($3); while that of 0.23 mm galvanized coils imported from Indian Bhushan is RMB 7,150/mt ($905), down RMB 50/mt ($6). Meanwhile, WISCO announced that it unchanged its galvanized coil prices for September, while Wuxi NewDaZhong announced RMB 100/mt ($13) increase. According to the above mentioned situation, galvanized coil prices are expected to continue keeping the steady trend next week. The continuity of this trend for a longer trend mainly depends on the increase of the domestic downstream demand in the future.