The recent history of consumer-driven product demand experienced in the United States will soon be repeated in China. In the USA, over the past two decades, the largest growth segment of steel products shipped by North American producers was zinc coated sheets. This growth was larger than 6％ per year from 1985 to the present. While this market was growing,the nature of the steels themselves was also changing as an ever increasing proportion of these coated steels represented by advanced high strength steels:rephosphorized ULC,bake hardened ULC,HSLA,dual-phase and TRIP steels. This paper will review some metallurgical concepts and challenges facing steel producers as they serve this premium coated sheet steel market for the automotive industry.