Over the past week China's domestic pre-painted galvanized iron prices have again increased. For example, the price of CGCC 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm x C material produced by Wuxi NewDaZhong has risen to RMB 5,600/mt, up from RMB 5,450/mt last Friday.
This week China's domestic PPGI prices again recorded an increase, due to the sharp rise in the steel futures market and also due to expectations that some leading mills would increase their ex-works prices for December. However, with users reluctant to accept the rising prices and increasingly adopting a wait-and-see approach to market trading, the volume of transactions in the local PPGI market has started to shrink. In addition, demand has also been negatively influenced by the arrival of colder weather. Besides the users, the leading local mills are also waiting to see what happens next, with most of them keeping their ex-works prices unchanged for the moment. As regards next week, steel futures prices in China are still expected to constitute the main factor influencing the movement of domestic PPGI spot prices.
As for the domestic mills, Baosteel this week issued its PPGI ex-works prices for December, keeping its prices stable compared to November levels. Likewise, WISCO this week also maintained its PPGI ex-works prices for December unchanged from its November prices.
Based on the situation observed this week, with local PPGI prices in China getting higher, the transaction volume is shrinking and most players in the market are following a waiting-and-see strategy. Nevertheless, for the week ahead, prices may continue to follow the rising trend of the current week.