Abstract: The present invention provides a suspension and method for improving the corrosion protection of substrates which comprise or consist of steel. It has been discovered that if an organic derivative of a bentonite clay and a modified urea are added to a dispersion of flakes of Zn, Al and/or Mg, or alloys thereof, the resulting suspension demonstrates a rheological profile which is ideally suited for coating steel substrates. In fact, the inventive suspension enables coating with a high consistency of performance. The performance of the suspension is already reached after one coating process i.e. even after a dip/spin coating process is conducted only one once. In conclusion, steel substrates can be provided with a high-quality corrosion resistant coating in a more economical way compared to the prior art.