Due to the harsh weather and low starts of domestic construction projects, downstream demand for PPGI has not yet been released in the post-holiday period. Processors are not interested in making new purchases amid the current weak demand.
With the new arrivals of PPGI in February and the slow market activity, traders are now facing strong pressure from inventory. Accordingly, some traders have started to compromise in negotiations as they seek to push out their stocks. Chinese steel giant Baosteel has decided to raise its prices for hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil and galvanized by RMB 100-150/mt ($16-24/mt) for March shipment. Meanwhile, WISCO is expected to hike its prices by a small margin.
At the moment, the Chinese PPGI market is still characterized by slack demand and high pressure from inventory and so it may be difficult for the market to see upward movement in the short term. It is expected that the PPGI market in China will maintain a sideways trend in the upcoming week.