During the past week (March 12-18), China's domestic galvanized steel prices have been climbing up rapidly in line with the increases for other finished steels in the domestic market. At the same time, inventory has declined to rather low levels.
Product Name | Specification | Category | Average Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Thick HDG | 1.0 mm x 1,250 mm | SGCC | 5,377 | +173 | 788 | +25 |
Thin HDG | 0.5 mm x 1,000 mm | SGCC | 5,507 | +100 | 807 | +15 |
In the context of the current strong increases in HDG prices, in general traders have started to book materials in large tonnages. Meanwhile, end-user demand has also been recovering as the weather gets warmer. Thus, some inventories that were previously piled up in the mills' warehouse have been quickly absorbed by the market.
Due to the scarcity of cold rolled materials in the domestic market, galvanized steel producers have reportedly been pushing up their sales prices for full hard coils, but still with little room for profit margin. During the week in question, Chinese galvanized steel producer Tangshan-based Hengtong Steel twice raised its listed prices, and was followed by other private sector mills.
Given the significant price increases already seen, some traders have started to fear about the future market. With plenty of stocks held by domestic traders, market participants are now wary of any signs of possible drops in prices.
For the coming week, it is expected that China's domestic HDG market will continue its rising trend but at a slower pace.