During the week ending December 22, hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices in the Chinese domestic market have continued to trend down slightly. Average HDG prices in the Chinese market can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
In the past week, domestic demand in the Chinese HDG market has not shown any signs of improvement, while traders have been coming under pressure from both steel mills and the downstream market. End-users are now more cautious about purchasing activities after most leading mills made reductions to their HDG prices, and they have preferred to maintain a wait-and-see stance for the time being. Moreover, they may now also postpone stock replenishing plans until after the New Year holiday period (January 1-3).
On the other hand, with the approach of the end of the year, in order to guarantee next-year orders, mills have taken a number of steps. For instance, Benxi Steel has decreased its prices of HDG by RMB 150/mt ($23/mt) with an additional preferential discount of RMB 300/mt ($47/mt) for regular customers, besides which they have also increased their freight subsidy from RMB 100/mt ($15/mt) previously to RMB 150/mt ($23/mt).
Overall, it appears hard for the HDG market to see a revival, and so it is expected that prices of HDG in China will continue to trend down slightly.