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Hot-dip galvanized sheet market: innovation drives growth, challenges contain opportunities
12 Jun,2025
Recently, the hot-dip galvanized sheet industry has shown a series of eye-catching development trends, with significant changes in technological innovation, market demand and industrial structure, becoming the focus of the steel and metal processing field.
From the perspective of technological innovation, major companies and research institutions have increased their R&D investment, striving to break through the existing technical bottlenecks and improve the performance and quality of hot-dip galvanized sheets. Jiangsu Tonghe New Materials Co., Ltd. obtained the patent for "a hot-dip galvanized sheet and hot-dip galvanized sheet processing device" in May 2025 (authorization announcement number CN222890199U). The processing device involved in the patent is uniquely designed to set a partition plate in the processing tank, dividing it into a pretreatment tank, a degreasing tank and a pickling tank, and is equipped with a pneumatic pressure roller, a motor-driven disc and a brush that moves back and forth, which can efficiently clean up the debris on the galvanized substrate, and then perform degreasing and pickling treatment, greatly improving the processing efficiency. At the same time, the fan can absorb the dust generated during the cleaning process, protect the working environment, and ensure a continuous and efficient substrate processing process.
Excellence (Gannan County) Metal Technology Co., Ltd. also won the patent for "A Cooling Device for Hot-Dip Galvanizing" in June 2025 (authorization announcement number CN222961503U). This cooling device optimizes the cooling link of hot-dip galvanized sheets. A motor is set in the support shell, and the movable plate is connected by an electric push rod. The rotating rod and the fixed seats close to each other are used in conjunction with several push rods to firmly fix galvanized sheets of different widths. The innovation lies in the spiral winding of the exhaust pipe in the external water tank. When the blower and the motor are working, the airflow can blow away the heat on the surface of the rotating galvanized sheet without dead ends, and introduce it into the exhaust pipe through the air outlet cavity. The water in the external water tank absorbs the heat, realizing high-quality cooling of the galvanized sheet while reasonably recycling the heat in the hot air. The insulation pipe effectively isolates the heat loss and improves the energy utilization efficiency.
At the market demand level, hot-dip galvanized sheet continues to maintain strong demand in many fields due to its excellent corrosion resistance and good processing performance. As a traditional major user of hot-dip galvanized sheets, the construction sector is experiencing significant changes in its demand structure as green building standards are fully promoted. In steel structure workshops and prefabricated buildings, the proportion of hot-dip galvanized sheets used for curtain walls and roofs will increase to 45% in 2025. At the same time, the requirements for performance indicators such as zinc layer thickness and corrosion resistance are becoming more stringent to meet the needs of long-term use and energy conservation and environmental protection of buildings. For example, in the construction of some large commercial complexes, roof structures made of hot-dip galvanized sheets need to have higher weather resistance to cope with long-term sun, rain and temperature changes.
The automotive industry, especially the new energy vehicle sector, has become a new engine for the growth of demand for hot-dip galvanized sheets. With the vigorous development of the new energy vehicle industry, BYD, Tesla and other leading automakers are expected to increase their purchases of hot-dip galvanized sheets by 20% in 2025. New energy vehicles pursue lightweight and high-strength design, which has increased the penetration rate of high-end hot-dip galvanized products such as zinc-aluminum-magnesium coated sheets in automobile manufacturing to 28%. These high-end coated plates are used in key parts such as automotive body structural parts and battery pack shells. They can not only reduce the weight of the car body and increase the driving range, but also ensure the structural strength and corrosion resistance, and meet the use requirements of new energy vehicles under complex working conditions.
The home appliance field also has a stable demand for hot-dip galvanized plates, and has new requirements for product characteristics. The weather resistance and aesthetics of hot-dip galvanized plates for the shells of home appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines have increased, and the proportion of color-coated hot-dip galvanized plates in this field has reached 30%. Consumers' pursuit of the appearance, texture and durability of home appliances has driven home appliance manufacturers to adopt higher-quality color-coated hot-dip galvanized plates to enhance product competitiveness.
From the perspective of the industrial structure, leading companies have continuously carried out capacity layout and industrial chain integration with their capital, technology and scale advantages. Baosteel Zhanjiang Base has added 800,000 tons of high-end zinc plate production capacity, and actively promoted the construction of smart factories. By introducing advanced automated production equipment, big data analysis systems and 5G communication technologies, it has achieved precise control and efficient management of the production process, improved product quality stability and production efficiency, and further consolidated its leading position in the industry.
In terms of export market, the dividends of RCEP agreement continue to be released, the economy in Southeast Asia is developing rapidly, and infrastructure construction and manufacturing expansion have driven the annual growth rate of demand for hot-dip galvanized sheets to more than 15%. In 2025, the proportion of hot-dip galvanized sheet exports in my country's total output will increase to 18%. Domestic companies such as Shandong Huixin Plate Industry Co., Ltd. have achieved significant growth in the total export orders by actively expanding emerging markets such as South America and Africa. Even in complex financial environments such as fluctuations in the US dollar exchange rate and depreciation of the RMB, they still maintain a good development trend in export business.
However, the development of the industry is not smooth sailing. Fluctuations in raw material prices have become the "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of enterprises. In 2025, the price fluctuation of zinc ingots reached ±18%, severely squeezing the profit space of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, some leading companies have taken the lead in exploring countermeasures, reducing production costs by 12%-15% through recycled zinc recycling technology. For example, some companies have established a complete recycled zinc recycling system to extract zinc elements from waste galvanized products and put them back into production, which not only reduces dependence on primary zinc ore, but also reduces production costs and environmental pollution.
Although the overall capacity utilization rate of the industry has reached 89.1%, small and medium-sized enterprises are facing great survival pressure with a capacity utilization rate of less than 75% due to backward technology, capital shortage and other limitations. In this context, small and medium-sized enterprises need to actively seek differentiated competition paths, such as focusing on specific market segments, providing customized hot-dip galvanized sheet products and services to meet customers' personalized needs; or increasing R&D investment, breaking through a key technology, and producing high-value-added products to enhance their competitiveness.
Looking to the future, the hot-dip galvanized sheet industry will accelerate towards green, intelligent and high-end directions. In the process of greening, the proportion of recycled zinc is expected to increase from 15% to 20%, and the chromium-free passivation process will fully replace the traditional chromate process to reduce environmental pollution, which is in line with the global environmental protection development trend. In terms of intelligent transformation, the penetration rate of smart factories will exceed 68%. With the help of 5G + Industrial Internet technology, production equipment will be interconnected, and production processes will be monitored and optimized in real time, and production efficiency is expected to increase by 30%.
High-end development will increase the proportion of high-end products such as zinc-aluminum-magnesium coated plates to 45% to meet the increasingly stringent performance requirements in new energy vehicles, green buildings, and high-end equipment manufacturing. In the international market, with the in-depth implementation of regional trade agreements such as RCEP, markets such as Southeast Asia will continue to maintain a high growth trend, providing domestic hot-dip galvanized plate companies with broad development space. The industry is expected to achieve a new round of high-quality development driven by innovation.
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