During the week ending January 30, average prices of pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI) in the Chinese domestic market have moved sideways compared to January 23, while transaction activity in the domestic market has been at low-to-medium levels.
Offer prices of ex-China PPGI have been heard between $575-600/mt, moving sideways on average compared to on January 23.
Average PPGI prices in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.
| Specification (mm) | Category | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
| 0.476 x 1,000 | CGCC | 4,730 | - | 679 | +4 |
| 0.426 x 1,000 | CGCC | 4,890 | - | 702 | +4 |
13 percent VAT is included in all prices and all prices are ex-warehouse.
During the given week, PPGI prices in the Chinese domestic market have moved sideways amid the ongoing slack demand from downstream users. Inventories of PPGI have seen slight declines, bolstering prices to a certain degree. However, decreasing raw material prices have weakened the support for PPGI prices. Since the Chinese New Year holiday (February 14-23) is approaching, demand for PPGI may slacken further, it is thought that PPGI prices in the Chinese domestic market will edge down slightly in the coming week.
As of January 30, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,288/mt ($472/mt), decreasing by RMB 17/mt ($2.4/mt) or 0.5 percent since January 23, while down 0.3 percent compared to the previous trading day, January 29.
$1 = RMB 6.9678