New Year's Day brings no change to HDG price

SteelOrbis Shanghai This week saw the hot dip galvanized (HDG) market price remain stable. In addition, the trading volume and market inventories did not change much compared with last week. Also this week, the Chinese authorities announced the November data for steel industry imports and exports, while some steel mills released new ex-factory prices for HDG. On January 4, 2007, the average market price of 1.0 mm HDG was unchanged from last week at RMB 5,577/mt ($715/mt), while that of 0.5 mm HDG was RMB 5,950/mt ($759/mt), up RMB 23/mt compared with the price last weekend. Meanwhile, the average market price of 0.23 mm imported HDG from Bhushan in India is unchanged at RMB 7,200/mt ($922/mt). The HDG market price saw no change after Monday this week, which was New Year's Day. Some traders tried to increase their selling price, but the effect was not obvious. The trading volume and the market inventories continued unchanged. From the whole market situation, with the Chinese traditional Spring Festival approaching, the traders all think that the demand for HDG will be better than before and so their stance hasn't seen any change. Meanwhile, available market supplies of HDG were still at a low level. Consequently, the market price of HDG is also expected to maintain its stable trend next week. This week, the domestic zinc price was RMB 36,000/mt ($4,673/mt), down RMB 500/mt ($64/mt) compared with last week. This week, the Chinese authorities released the November data for steel industry imports and exports. According to the new statistics, November imports of galvanized coils were 301,800 mt, down 14,200 mt compared with October. Meanwhile, November exports of galvanized coils were 300,400 mt, down 15,900 mt compared with October. Thus, net imports of galvanized coils for November were 1,400 mt. This week, the new ex-factory prices of LianYuan Steel's HDG saw an increase of RMB 50/mt ($6/mt), whereas Wuxi NewDaZhong's latest ex-factory prices for HDG saw a drop of RMB 50-200/mt ($6-26/mt).