Over the past week China's PPGI market has seen a slight rise. With the increased prices of hot dip galvanized and cold rolled products, the production costs of PPGI have been climbing up gradually.
Product name | Specification | Category | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
PPGI | 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm | CGCC | 6,027 | +50 | 884 | +7 |
PPGI | 0.426 mm x 1,000 mm | CGCC | 6,617 | +43 | 970 | +6 |
At present, the prices of CGCC 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm in the Chinese PPGI markets in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Boxing are at RMB 5,850/mt ($858/mt), RMB 6,350/mt ($931/mt) and RMB 5,880/mt ($862/mt) respectively, while CGCC 0.426 mm x 1,000 mm is priced at RMB 5,950/mt ($872/mt), RMB 6,450/mt ($946/mt) and RMB 7,450/mt ($1,092/mt) in the respective areas.
Good levels of trading activity are reported in China's domestic PPGI market, with most traders and end-users now seeking to build up their stocks as they had not made many purchases for their stocks ahead of the Spring Festival holiday. Meanwhile, most domestic PPGI producers are also low on inventory and are operating at full capacity. In Boxing, producers' operations and outputs have decreased to some extent affected by gas supply shortages. The price of color coated coil has not risen by any great margin in this region, while pre-painted steel prices have climbed up by RMB 130-150/mt ($19-22) based on the price uptrend for hot dip galvanized. Thus, some PPGI producers, such as Shandong Linqing HONGE Co. and Shandong Guanzhou Co., have increased their ex-factory prices by RMB 50-100/mt ($7-15) due to cost pressure, but registered a reduced number of deals after the price hike.
Other Chinese PPGI producers, such as Tianjin Xinyu Color Coated Sheet Co., Ltd., have maintained prices at unchanged levels due to the lack of a recovery of demand from main customers in northeastern China. Meanwhile, some producers in Shandong Province also kept their prices unchanged, since they feared that if they raised their prices lower-priced supplies from northern China would enter the Shandong market and seriously affect their sales. Meanwhile, Shandong-based color coated sheet producers Kelong and Huijin, whose prices were on the low side before the Spring Festival holiday, have raised their prices slightly.
Generally speaking, Chinese PPGI producers are now focusing on product sales. Expectations for a rising price trend in the coming period will depend on the demand response from end-users.