During the past week hot dip galvanized prices remained on their rising trend in the Chinese domestic market, while trading activity was observed to be slightly on the slack side. Currently, quotations are generally rising in this market, though actual deal prices are a bit lower.
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 | 5,203 | +23 | 763 | +3 |
Thin HDG | 0.5 mm x 1,000 mm | SGCC | 5,407 | +57 | 793 | +8 |
Generally speaking, current domestic HDG quotations are slightly higher compared with the past week. MCC Hengtong has raised its quotations by RMB 50/mt ($7/mt) for HDG, while the market price has risen by a lesser margin of around RMB 10/mt ($1/mt). Recently, end-user demand has been lower in eastern and northern China due to the cold weather. Inventories are currently at relatively high levels in the market, and some time will be needed to digest them.
Over the past week, production of HDG downstream product pre-painted steel in the Boxing market has slowed down, with production halted at night due to problems with limited gas supplies. Thus, producers have lost some orders and purchases of pre-painted steel in this region are lower than in past weeks. Additionally, the market inventories of pre-painted steel are said to be at sufficient levels.
On the producers' side, full hard cold rolled materials stocked by domestic HDG producers before the Spring Festival holiday have almost been used up. At the same time, cold rolled products are in short supply and market prices are rising: HDG producers can currently purchase 0.3 mm full hard at the level of RMB 4,700/mt ($689/mt). In addition, the prices of some cold rolled products are higher than HDG prices, and the lack of cold rolled product supplies has boosted cost pressure for HDG. In the coming period, HDG prices may see a rising trend due to this increased cost.