Over the past two weeks China's domestic pre-painted galvanized iron prices have started to rebound. For example, the price of CGCC 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm x C material produced by Wuxi NewDaZhong has increased to RMB 5,450/mt, down from RMB 5,300/mt on October 16.
In the past week, due to the strong increase in the steel futures market, the spot prices of steel products, including PPGI, have all risen. In addition, traders started to feel more confident especially as PPGI prices had been declining over a considerable period of time. Furthermore, PPGI inventories in the market are not very high. As a result, PPGI prices have increased in line with the price rises seen for other products. Meanwhile, the transaction situation registered some improvement after the declining movement of prices came to a halt. However, coming up to the end of this week, steel futures posted a sharp decrease, followed by a drop in the spot prices of HR. In this situation, traders have again started to adopt a wait-and-see policy. With HR prices starting to move downward, it will be difficult for other products to continue to increase, and so PPGI prices may soon follow the latest trend of HR prices.
As for the domestic mills, Bensteel this week issued its PPGI ex-works prices for November, decreasing its prices by RMB 200/mt ($29/mt) compared to its ex-works prices for October. Thus, the new price of 0.47 mm TDC51D is at RMB 5,450/mt ($799/mt), excluding 17 percent VAT.
With regard to the export situation, in September China's exports of pre-painted plates and strips came to 123,763 mt, 36.7 percent higher than the August figure of 90,519 mt. As for the import situation, in September China's imports of pre-painted plates and strips totaled 39,081 mt, 33.7 percent higher than the level for August which stood at 29,221 mt.
Based on the situation observed this week, it now appears more difficult for PPGI prices to see record another obvious increase, as HR prices are now on the decline. As a result, in the coming week local PPGI prices in China will most likely move on a flat trend.