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December 2019 | Galvanized Steel and Tinplate Market Tracker


Automotive recovery continues: Asian Market Highlights


While China’s recovery should continue to prove positive for galvanizers both in and outside China – China is after all a net importer of electro-galvanized (ELG) sheet and heavily reliant on higher quality EU and other Asian HDG used in automotive applications – the automotive outlook for the rest of the region continues to worsen.

Output of motor vehicles, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), rose for the fourth month in a row in November (in month-on-month terms) when it also increased on a year-on-year basis for the first time this year. Output had fallen far below most forecasters’ expectations this year – through the first 11 months the erosion of 10% was double the 5% predicted by LMC Automotive as late as September – but signs of revival beyond just the seasonal changes make the more positive outlook of 2020 seem increasingly realistic. Oxford Economics, relying on forecasts from LMC Automotive, now predict that, after a 9.5% fall this year, output will begin to recover, rising by 2.9% in 2020.

While China’s recovery should continue to prove positive for galvanizers both in and outside China – China is after all a net importer of electro-galvanized (ELG) sheet and heavily...

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