Pre-painted galvanized prices to increase in China

Pre-painted galvanized prices to increase in China

According to recent market reports, organic coated sheet prices have started to show an upward trend in China. However, market sources report that its too late for such a price increase due to other sheet products which experienced from price hike before. The pre-painted galvanized prices which were stable at $620/mt for the past few months, will increase to $630/mt for January delivery. At the same time, traders reported that the aforementioned product was offered for Chinese market at $600-610/mt CFR, however no booking at that level is confirmed yet. Moreover, the demand from China has slowed down for pre-painted galvanized as a result of expectation of large increase in domestic output. But, new painting lines will start operation in the coming months, accordingly demand for substrate will rise and this will impact market prices. In addition, Chinese importers are offering galvanized sheets at $570/mt CFR. However, these price level is not good for painting lines which want to obtain a margin of $80-100/mt over substrate costs in order to turn a profit.