The “9^th International Conference on Zinc and Zinc Alloy Coated Steel Sheet” (GALVATECH 2013) and the “2^nd Asia-Pacific Galvanizing Conference” (AP Galva 2013) joint conference was successfully held in Beijing from September 23^rd to 27^th, 2013. The conference was organized by The Chinese Society for Metals (CSM), co-organized by National Engineering Lab of Advanced Coating Technology for Metals and Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection. This is the first time that GALVATECH and AP Galva Conferences have been held in China. 

This event attracts more than 400 participants from 25 countries and regions.  With more than two years preparations, 203 abstracts were received totally, 155 of which were published in the conference proceedings after an evaluation by the technical committee. 130 papers were arranged for the oral presentations and 12 papers for the poster presentations at the parallel sessions. The information of parallel session is as follows:

 Challenges in Galvanizing Advanced High Strength Steels

 Automotive Applications

 New Galvanizing Lines & General Process

 HDG Process Technologies-Furnace

 HDG Process Technologies-Bath Management

 HDG Process Technologies-Coating Control

 Quality Control

 New Technology and Recycling

 Surface Treatments

Zn-Al-Mg Coated Sheet Steels

Corrosion

Surface and Structural Analysis 

The conference was focused on the hot topics in the field of zinc and zinc alloy coated steel sheet all around the world, exchanging all the opinions, suggestions and having a wide discussion on the status quo and the trends in this field. The world steel industry, especially the Chinese steel industry is still facing a lot of challenges such as weak demands, over-production, serious competition of similar quality products, shrunken profit of the industry, and increasing pressure of resources and environment. With the development of the Chinese steel industry, the concepts of energy saving, carbon emission reduction, the promotion of technological progress and the adjustment of industrial structure will be deepened further. 

During GALVATECH2013 and APGalva2013, the tremendous progress of galvanizing steel sheet industry in the past years was reviewed; the latest scientific and technological progress was exchanged. Thus, it promoted the further development on GALVATECH Conferences all over the world. The feedbacks from the delegates were positive, they have benefited much from their participation in this conference. The next GALVATECH Conference will be held in Canada in 2015.