During the past week China's domestic pre-painted galvanized iron prices has continued to rise. For example, the price of CGCC 0.476 mm x 1,000 mm x C material produced by Wuxi NewDaZhong has increased to RMB 6,200/mt, up from RMB 5,900/mt last Friday.
This week spot prices for products such as HR, CR and HDG have continued to climb up sharply, thereby pushing PPGI prices up also. Meanwhile, the mills keep making strong upward adjustments to their ex-works prices. İt is said that this week Baosteel will issue its new prices for September, the expectation being that it will hike its prices by over RMB 1,000/mt ($146/mt). Although the details have not been published yet, market confidence has received a boost. In addition, current market inventories are not high, which also helps support the continuous rise of prices. However, in the latter half of this week, certain declines have been observed in some local steel markets such as the rebar and wire rod markets. As a result, next week fluctuating movements may be seen in most of the steel markets in China. However, due to the positive conditions prevailing at present, any decline margins should be limited.
As for domestic mills, Panhua Group this week issued its PPGI ex-works prices for August, raising its levels by RMB 180-650/mt ($26-95/mt). As a result, the producer's price of 0.5 mm CGCC stands at RMB 6,370/mt ($932/mt), including 17 percent VAT.
Based on the situation observed this week, although strong increases have been seen in China's PPGI market, next week the uptrend is likely to face increasing resistance. In the long term, however, the market still looks set to continue on its rising track.