Business Society: Rising raw material costs drive a slight increase in galvanized sheet coils

This week, the trend of hot coil futures has fluctuated strongly, driven by the rise in raw material costs and supported by the upward adjustment of steel mill guidance prices. The price of galvanized sheet coils has slightly increased. According to the Commodity Market Analysis System of Shengyi Society, as of April 24th, the average price of galvanized sheet coil in the domestic market was 4190.00 yuan/ton, a slight increase of 0.72% compared to last week.

Fundamentals: This week, the futures hot coil market has been operating strongly, and most domestic spot market prices have generally followed suit. The trading atmosphere in the market has improved, but it still falls short of expectations. Merchants' recent operations are still mainly focused on trading and destocking to avoid excessive inventory pressure after the May Day holiday. According to the latest data obtained by Business Society, the overall production rate of galvanized sheet this week was 92.23%; The capacity utilization rate is 67.79%, an increase of 0.56% compared to last week; The weekly output was 1.1974 million tons, an increase of 9900 tons compared to last week; The inventory of steel mills is 620800 tons, a decrease of 5400 tons from last week; Social inventory was 1.5716 million tons, a decrease of 14400 tons from last week; The total inventory was 2.1924 million tons, a decrease of 19800 tons from last week.

In terms of cost, mainstream steel mills in Shanghai have introduced settlement policies this week, with a settlement price of 4166 yuan/ton for galvanized sheet coils upon arrival at the warehouse.

In terms of exports: According to the latest customs data, the export volume of galvanized sheet in March 2026 was 1.157 million tons, an increase of 30.13% month on month and 7.48% year-on-year. The cumulative export volume of galvanized sheet from January to March was 3.2512 million tons, a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 4.02%. Entering April, on the one hand, the situation in the Middle East continues to be disturbed, and there is still no news of a recovery in the export orders of galvanized sheets to the Middle East. It is expected that the export of galvanized sheets to the Middle East in April will decrease compared to the previous month; On the other hand, the exchange rate between the US dollar and offshore Chinese yuan continued to decline to around 6.8 in April, and the Chinese yuan continued to appreciate. The price advantage of galvanized sheet export orders was somewhat suppressed, and it is expected that the export volume of galvanized sheet in April will not show significant growth.

Market forecast: Prices will enter an upward trend in the near future, mainly driven by the rise in raw material hot coil prices, with galvanized coil prices not rising as much as hot-rolled coil prices. Overall, Shengyi Society expects that there may still be room for domestic galvanized coil prices to rise in the short term.