China output of coated / galvanizing sheet stayed at high level in July.

Galvanized coil / sheet output totaled 4.1027mt for Jan-July 05, up 37.3% year on year.

Output of coated sheet reached 923.5 thousand tons for the first seven months of 2005, jumping by 56.7% year on year. (Note: the statistics of coated sheet output does not include that of Chinese private enterprises)

Galvanizing sheet import in Aug has been lower than 300 thousand tons for the second time after the peak level in July since Mar 05. Japan, Taiwan and Korea are three major suppliers of galvanized to China, and the import from the three countries has decreased to 122.2 thousand tons, 82.7 thousand tons and 45.1 thousand tons respectively in July.

Galvanized sheet import from India has also continued dropping in July with the volume reaching 9 thousand tons, down 16.7 thousand tons from June 05.

Color coated sheet:

China has totally imported 233 thousand tons for Jan-July 05, decreasing by 30.65% year on year.

Meanwhile, China exports of color coated sheet stayed at low level of 6.2 thousand tons in July.

Net import of color-coated sheet has further decreased to 25.6 thousand tons in July 05, evidence that color coated sheet productivity has increased significantly in China since 2004, reducing earlier large imports.

Importing countries, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have held the largest proportion in importing color coated sheet in China good for 93.4% total imports in July, followed by Malaysia, etc.