Color coated coil price decrease slows down

SteelOrbis Shanghai Color coated coil prices decreased during the week with small steps. The trading volume of the market turned better compared with last week and the market inventories decreased a little. On August 11, the average market price of 0.476 mm color coated coil was RMB 6,383/mt ($801), down RMB 34/mt ($4) week on week; that of 0.4 mm color coated coil was RMB 7,090/mt ($890), down RMB 177/mt ($22); while that of 0.286 mm color coated coil imported from Taiwanese Yieh Phui retained RMB 8,000/mt ($1,004) level. With a slight picking up in demand, the market inventory of color coated coils decreased compared to last week. Meanwhile, the market price of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized iron products began to keep stable recently. Therefore, color coated price decrease slowed down and the trading volume grew. However, because of the large decline of the market price earlier, traders are mainly focused on enlarging their sales. On the other hand, it is reported that China's steel export decreased month on month in July, which may led color coated coil market to still remain unstable. This week, the steadiness of some large scale steel mills' color coated coil ex-factory prices had a positive influence on the traders' attitude. Jiangyin UnionSteel announced August prices and Anshan Steel (Angang) announced September prices. Both mills retained their previous color coated coil ex-factory price levels. According to July production statistics, China produced 206,600 metric tons of color coated coils in July, up 17,500 metric tons compared with June.