During the week ending May 3, the Chinese hot dip galvanized (HDG) market has registered a slight decrease. Average prices of HDG in the Chinese domestic market can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
In the past week, prices in the Guangzhou HDG market have seen a small decline, while prices in the Shanghai and Boxing markets have maintained a stable trend. In the post-May Day holiday period, some traders in the HDG market sought to push up their prices in order to test the market, but quickly pulled them back to the pre-holiday levels due to slack activity. 1.0 mm HDG is now offered at RMB 5,000/mt ($798/mt) in the Shanghai market.
Due to the imbalance between supply and demand and insufficient market confidence, prices in the current HDG market are characterized by a soft tendency. Meanwhile, profit margins for HDG are narrow, and so mills may adjust their production structures in the coming period. Some mills have reported that their export volumes are down month on month.
Overall, it is expected that the HDG market in China will continue to follow a soft trend in the short term.