In the current era when core industries such as construction engineering, automotive manufacturing, and smart home are accelerating their iterations, metal materials, as the cornerstone of the industrial economy, have always been the focus of industry attention in terms of technological innovation and market trends.

 

Recently, mainstream categories such as Galvalume Steel, Galvanized Steel, Aluminum Coil/Pipe/Plate, Stainless Steel, Aluzinc Steel and Prepainted Steel have continued to make efforts. Jointly promote the metal materials industry to enter a new stage of high-quality development. ​

 

Galvalume Steel, with a gold coating ratio of 55% aluminum, 43.4% zinc and 1.6% silicon, demonstrates significant advantages in weather resistance and heat reflection performance. This kind of metal material formed by continuous hot-dip galvanizing process is penetrating from the traditional construction field to emerging scenarios such as new energy facilities.

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In the field of commercial buildings, its silver-white metallic roofing system not only has an ultra-long anti-corrosion period of 15 to 20 years, but also can reduce air conditioning energy consumption by more than 30% through a solar radiation reflection rate of over 80%. The latest Galvalume Plus™ product launched by global steel giant ArcelorMittal has successfully entered the high-end cold chain warehousing and data center construction market by enhancing salt spray resistance to over 5,000 hours through nano-scale organic coating technology. ​

 

As a fundamental material with a century-old application history, Galvanized Steel has been rejuvenated through process innovation. After the hot-dip galvanizing process was upgraded to an automated control system, the deviation of the zinc coating thickness was controlled within ±5μm, extending the material's service life to over 25 years. ​

 

In the process of agricultural modernization, the coverage rate of intelligent greenhouses with galvanized steel frames has reached 68%, and their resistance to pesticide corrosion has significantly reduced maintenance costs. In the field of photovoltaic support structures, the new zinc-nickel alloy coated products have achieved stable service in a low-temperature environment of -40 ℃, promoting their application proportion in photovoltaic power stations in high-latitude regions to increase to 45%. According to industry data, the global galvanized steel market size is expected to grow by 7.2% year-on-year in 2024, with the new energy sector contributing the main increment. ​

 

Driven by the "dual carbon" strategy, aluminum materials, with their low density advantage of 2.7g/cm³, have become the core carrier of the lightweight revolution. The amount of aluminum used per vehicle in the automotive industry has increased from 150 kilograms in 2019 to 230 kilograms in 2024. Among them, the application proportion of 6-series aluminum alloy sheets in body panels has exceeded 40%, reducing the overall vehicle weight by 15% to 20%. ​

 

After the aluminum curtain wall system in the construction field adopts the fluorocarbon spraying process, its weather resistance grade reaches AA10, and it can maintain its color for 20 years in tropical coastal areas. The ultra-thin aluminum foil product (with a thickness of only 0.0045mm) developed by China's leading aluminum processing enterprise has been successfully applied to the material of battery tabs for power batteries, promoting an 8% increase in the driving range of new energy vehicles. The global aluminum processing materials market size exceeded 280 billion US dollars in 2024, among which the growth rate of high-end Aluminum Products reached 12.5%. ​

 

Stainless steel has maintained a high level of prosperity in the high-end manufacturing field due to the characteristics of the passivation film formed by chromium-nickel alloy. The penetration rate of food-grade 304 stainless steel in smart kitchen equipment has reached 92%, and its antibacterial rate of over 99% meets the EU LFGB certification standard. The 316L stainless steel in the medical field achieves a surface roughness of Ra≤0.8μm through electrolytic polishing process, and its market share in the field of artificial joint implantation exceeds 80%. ​

 

Duplex stainless steel 2205, with a microstructure of 50% ferrite and 50% austenite, achieves 30 years of maintenance-free operation in Marine engineering pipeline applications. Super austenitic stainless steel 904L has overcome the corrosion problem in high-concentration sulfuric acid environments and successfully replaced traditional titanium materials in the construction of chemical storage tanks, reducing costs by more than 40%. ​

 

Aluzinc Steel, which belongs to the same aluminum-zinc alloy coating family as Galvalume Steel, has formed a differentiated competitive advantage by fine-tuning the silicon content. Its unique honeycomb-like coating structure endows the material with superior impact resistance, reducing the damage rate by 60% in the application of highway guardrails. ​

 

In the field of outdoor advertising, Aluzinc Steel achieves color difference control of ΔE≤1 through roller coating pretreatment technology, meeting the requirements of brand visual uniformity. In the field of municipal lighting, its anti-ultraviolet coating technology extends the color retention period of lamp poles to over 10 years. Industry analysis shows that Aluzinc Steel's market share in the small and medium-sized outdoor facilities market has reached 38%, forming a complementary competitive pattern with Galvalume Steel. ​

 

Prepainted Steel achieves a perfect integration of decoration and functionality through a multi-layer coating system of "substrate pretreatment + primer + topcoat + clear coat". Color-coated steel plates for construction have developed over 30 surface effects such as stone imitation and wood grain imitation, and their application rate in the field of integrated houses has increased to 75%. Antibacterial color-coated steel sheets for household appliances, through silver ion slow-release technology, have an inhibition rate of 99.9% against Escherichia coli and have become the standard material for high-end refrigerator door panels. ​

 

The self-cleaning color-coated steel product launched in 2024 achieves the function of photocatalytic stain degradation through a nano-titanium dioxide coating, extending the cleaning cycle of building facades to over five years. According to statistics, the premium capacity of functional color-coated Steel Products is 20% to 30% higher than that of ordinary products, driving the average profit margin of the industry up to 8.5%. ​

 

From technological breakthroughs to practical application scenarios, the metal materials industry is undergoing a profound transformation from "scale expansion" to "quality improvement". The performance competition between Galvalume Steel and Aluzinc Steel, the process evolution of Galvanized Steel, the lightweight penetration of aluminum materials, the high-end breakthrough of stainless steel, and the functional innovation of color-coated steel jointly outline a clear path for the high-quality development of the industry. In the future, with the maturation of green smelting technology and the improvement of the circular economy system, the metal materials industry will provide more solid material support for the global industrial upgrading. ​