Buying Prepainted and Galvanized from China
Writing a blog from the spot is always challenging and perhaps even invigorating….nothing like smelling the coffee and writing about it rather than sitting in an airconditioned room and intellectualizing.
I have been visiting Prepainted Steel mills in China. Price differentials are amazing between each mill especially as you go more into the interior. It is of course without question China can produce quality PPGI and other steels but when we beat a mill on price, quality tradeoff comes with the territory.
Fortunately I met a very articulate Chinese Manager (jing li…see I can now speak Manadarin) who eloquently described the processes where price savings are possible.
One is of course the zinc coating…you order lower coating, you get better pricing
Top and bottom Paint/primer coating..you order lower you get better pricing.
Standard widths help get better pricing.
These are of course common sense understandings. Of course some mills know how to compromise believing customers will not test. One is make lower zinc coating, second is of course the painting microns. Some paint colours do not need high coatings. The other is playing on the tensile strength.