Diverse materials compete in the market, and the steel industry leads the future with innovation

Driven by the dual forces of the accelerated transformation of the global manufacturing industry and the continuous heating up of infrastructure investment, Core metallic materials such as Galvalume Steel, Galvanized Steel, Aluminum Coil/Pipe/Plate, Stainless Steel, Aluzinc Steel and Prepainted Steel It is reshaping the competitive landscape of the steel industry with strong market vitality and technological innovation.

Galvalume Steel has become the "new favorite" in the fields of construction and industry with its disruptive anti-corrosion technology. The alloy coating composed of 55% aluminum, 43.4% zinc and 1.6% silicon has been shown by salt spray test to have a corrosion resistance life that is more than three times that of pure galvanized steel plates. In the latest research by the American Commercial Building Association, over 60% of new commercial buildings use aluminized zinc steel plates for their roofs. Among them, a landmark office building project in Los Angeles has extended the building's maintenance cycle to 25 years by applying this material, significantly reducing the total life cycle cost. In the home appliance sector, an international home appliance giant has fully applied aluminized zinc steel plates to the production of refrigerator back plates. The anti-rust ability of the products in the high-humidity coastal environment has significantly improved, driving the annual growth rate of market demand to exceed 12%.

As a mainstay of traditional anti-corrosion materials, Galvanized Steel is consolidating its market position through technological iterations. Data from the China Iron and Steel Association shows that in 2024, the application volume of galvanized steel sheets in agricultural greenhouses, light steel residences and other fields still accounted for more than 45%. To address the challenges posed by new materials, enterprises such as Baosteel have introduced high-alumina galvanizing processes, which have enhanced the corrosion resistance of steel plates by 40%. These processes have been successfully applied in new rural construction projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with a year-on-year increase of 28% in order volume in a single quarter. Meanwhile, breakthroughs have also been made in the innovative application of galvanized steel sheets in the field of automotive lightweighting. A certain domestic new energy vehicle brand has achieved an 8% reduction in vehicle weight and a significant increase in driving range by optimizing the structural design of galvanized steel sheets.

The Aluminum Coil/Pipe/Plate market is experiencing a "golden growth period". Data from the International Aluminium Institute shows that global demand for aluminium processing materials increased by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, with the demand growth rate in the aerospace sector reaching 25%. In the fuselage structural components of the Boeing 787 passenger aircraft, the proportion of aluminum alloy materials is as high as 50%. During the second phase expansion of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, all the newly added battery tray production lines are made of high-strength aluminum alloy materials, with the monthly aluminum material purchase volume exceeding 5,000 tons. In the field of architectural decoration, landmark projects such as the honeycomb aluminum panel curtain wall of Beijing Daxing International Airport and the double-curved aluminum single-panel dome of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center have fully demonstrated the perfect integration of aluminum materials in terms of aesthetics and functionality.

Stainless Steel, with the characteristic of being an "all-round player", has been making continuous efforts in the field of high-end manufacturing. In terms of medical equipment manufacturing, the surgical instrument production line of a certain German medical device giant uses 316L medical-grade stainless steel to ensure that the instruments undergo zero corrosion and zero deformation during the high-temperature and high-pressure sterilization process. In the food processing industry, Yili Dairy's newly put into operation smart factory features fully automated production line equipment made of food-grade stainless steel, ensuring food safety and production efficiency. According to the World Stainless Steel Association's prediction, global stainless steel consumption is expected to exceed 55 million tons in 2025, representing a year-on-year growth of 7.2%.

Aluzinc Steel forms a complementary market with aluminized zinc steel plates and shines brightly in the field of industrial infrastructure. In the construction of warehousing and logistics facilities of the China-Laos Railway, a key project of the "Belt and Road Initiative", Aluzinc Steel, with its outstanding resistance to acid and alkali corrosion, successfully resisted the erosion of the hot and humid climate in Southeast Asia. The project usage reached 12,000 tons. Furthermore, in the newly-built intelligent warehousing center of the domestic large logistics enterprise "JD Logistics", the shelf system constructed with Aluzinc Steel has been adopted. While the load-bearing strength has increased by 30%, the maintenance cost has been reduced by 50%.

Prepainted Steel, with its dual excellence in "appearance and performance", leads the aesthetic transformation of architecture and home appliances. The nano self-cleaning color-coated steel plate jointly developed by Nippon Paint and Ansteel was applied in the Chongqing Raffles City project. After that, the exterior wall cleaning cycle was extended from twice a year to five years. In the home appliance sector, Xiaomi's smart refrigerator series, which features a color-coated steel plate with a irid-color aluminized zinc coating, achieves a 3D visual effect through a special texture printing process. The product's sales exceeded 100,000 units in the first month of its launch. According to statistics from the China Building Materials Circulation Association, the penetration rate of color-coated steel plates in the commercial building exterior decoration market has increased from 32% in 2020 to 58% in 2025.

At present, the steel industry is accelerating its transformation towards green and intelligent development. Material production enterprises have been increasing their investment in research and development. By developing low-energy consumption smelting technologies and intelligent surface treatment processes, they aim to reduce carbon emissions and enhance the added value of their products. For instance, the hydrogen direct reduction iron process developed by Hebei Iron & Steel Group has reduced the carbon dioxide emissions during the production of aluminized zinc steel plates by 60%. With the advancement of the global carbon neutrality goal and the growing demand for high-end manufacturing, core metal materials such as Galvalume Steel and Galvanized Steel will continue to expand their application boundaries driven by technological innovation, injecting strong impetus into the high-quality development of the steel industry.