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Forecasts and market analysis based on price assessments from Fastmarkets MB and Fastmarkets AMM

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November 2019 | Galvanized Steel and Tinplate Market Tracker


Fourth quarter prices dive in Asian contracts, setting low expectations for 2020: Global tinplate market highlights


The consumer market for tinplate reflects China’s development stage as well as its New Year gift tradition.

Prices fall in China’s best demand season
The fourth quarter is usually the strongest period of the year for the tinplate market in China, as canneries and presentation box-makers prepare for the Lunar New Year holiday during the first quarter of the Gregorian calendar year. Producers entered negotiations for the quarter expecting price gains, encouraged by the modest rise of 100 yuan per tonne ($14 per tonne) announced for monthly customers’ October orders, and the hope (if not the conviction) that upstream market prices had bottomed.

The extent of their miscalculation was made brutally clear when reports emerged of contract deals closed lower for the final quarter due to weak demand in both industrial and consumer markets. The slowdown in Chinese industrial activity has been made clear by the way that for months the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has hovered around the 50% value line between growth...

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