Price trend

Last week, the hot rolled coil futures market fluctuated within a narrow range, and the overall trading atmosphere for galvanized steel sheets and coils was subdued, with lukewarm transaction performance. To cope with sales pressure, the market did not choose to raise prices, but instead generally adopted a "price-for-volume" strategy, leading to a slight downward shift in mainstream transaction prices. According to SunSirs' commodity market analysis system, as of January 16th, the average price of galvanized steel sheets and coils in the domestic market was 4,062.50 RMB/ton, a slight decrease of 0.06% compared to the beginning of the week.

Market analysis

Overall market demand was weak, and some markets already started to see inventory accumulation. Even the upward fluctuations in futures prices did not have a significant impact on the market.  Merchants indicate that with the Lunar New Year approaching, the actual selling time in the market will become shorter and shorter. Given the already sluggish sales, they had not adjusted spot prices in response to the rising futures prices, and were prioritizing sales and clearing inventory as much as possible.

Fundamentals: Although the capacity utilization rate of galvanized steel sheets and coils decreased slightly last week, it remained relatively high compared to previous years, resulting in overall market supply remaining abundant. Social inventories continued to show a downward trend, and there had been no accumulation of inventory yet.

According to the latest data obtained by SunSirs, the overall operating rate of galvanized steel sheets last week was 79.25%; the capacity utilization rate was 65.28%, a decrease of 0.16% compared to the previous week; the weekly output was 931,100 tons, a decrease of 2,300 tons compared to the previous week; steel mill inventory was 491,800 tons, an increase of 12,800 tons compared to the previous week; social inventory was 1,226,100 tons, a decrease of 19,700 tons compared to the previous week; and total inventory was 1,717,900 tons, a decrease of 6,900 tons compared to the previous week.

Industry Trends: China's automobile exports reached a new milestone. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on the 14th, China's automobile exports exceeded 7 million units in 2025, reaching 7.098 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%.  Of these, new energy vehicles accounted for 2.615 million units, a year-on-year increase of 100%, becoming the core engine driving this growth.

Market Outlook:

The weak demand pattern is likely to continue and may even intensify as the end of the year approaches. Downstream users are mostly adopting a wait-and-see attitude, resulting in poor actual market transactions. Against this backdrop, businesses are still primarily focused on actively reducing inventory and accelerating shipments. SunSirs predicts that galvanized steel sheet and coil prices may fluctuate within a narrow range in the short term.

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