During the past week China's domestic pre-painted galvanized iron prices continued to decline. For example, the price of CGCC 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm x C material produced by Wuxi NewDaZhong has declined to RMB 6,050/mt, down from RMB 6,200/mt last Friday.
This week the spot prices of steel products in China remained on their downward trend. Although the leading Chinese mills are raising their ex-works prices in a bid to halt the downward movement, the effect has not been so obvious in the domestic PPGI market. As prices keep going down, the quantities being purchased by downstream users are decreasing, with most downstream buyers maintaining their wait-and-see attitude in the hope of lower prices. Meanwhile, demand in summer is traditionally low and inventories are begining to build up, especially at the mills. However, prices of HR and rebar are currently moving on a flat trend, and it is thought that PPGI prices may soon follow the example of these two influential products and so are most likely to move on a fluctuating trend over the next few weeks.
As for the domestic mills, Masteel this week issued its PPGI ex-works prices for late September, keeping its prices at the same levels as in mid-September. As a result, the producer's price of 0.5 mm TSGCC still stands at RMB 7,043/mt ($1,031/mt), including 17 percent VAT.
Based on the situation observed this week, although local PPGI prices in China have so far maintained their downward course, under the influence of the almost flat movement of HR and rebar prices, local PPGI prices may soon begin to follow a fluctuating trend.