China's ship plate market accelerates its structural adjustment pace
2013-06-04 09:00
Currently, the production of steel plates by Chinese steel companies is showing a downward trend due to the sluggish shipbuilding industry.
According to the China Steel E-Commerce Network, in the first quarter of this year, China's steel plate output was 1.7387 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 39.6%. Among them, the output of high-strength steel plates was 895,600 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 38.5%.
Major steel companies have seen significant declines in steel plate production compared to the same period last year. In the first quarter, seven steel companies produced more than 100,000 tons of steel plates, and six steel companies produced more than 50,000 tons of high-strength steel plates. The top three steel companies accounted for 48.9% of the total steel plate production. In March, China's steel plate output was 668,500 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 32.5%, of which the output of high-strength steel plates was 356,800 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 28.3%. The continued downturn in the shipbuilding industry has also led the steel plate market into a sharp decline in production and sales. Industry experts analyze that the possibility of a short-term warming up of the shipbuilding industry is small, so the situation of insufficient demand and sluggish transactions in the steel plate market will continue.
In addition, the structural changes in the demand for steel in the Chinese shipbuilding market are worth noting. Since the beginning of this year, Chinese shipbuilders have been active in the offshore engineering equipment market, and the order situation has significantly improved. In addition to orders for self-elevating drilling platforms used in shallow waters, Chinese shipbuilders have also accelerated the pace of receiving orders for deep-water drilling ships and semi-submersible drilling platforms.
Furthermore, the increase in China's demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers will help domestic shipbuilders obtain more orders for this type of vessel.
Although the traditional shipbuilding industry is sluggish, there will be some demand in the markets for special ships, deep-sea fishing vessels, fishery administration vessels, and large coastal and inland river vessels.
Therefore, the high-performance steel market, including steel for marine engineering, special stainless steel, and wear-resistant steel, will bring new opportunities for steel companies, which are worth paying attention to. From the perspective of steel requirements for the shipbuilding industry, shipbuilders have put forward higher requirements for the performance of shipbuilding steel. Although China has been able to meet most of the demand for shipbuilding steel, the supply of high-performance steel is still insufficient, especially high-strength steel plates with a thickness of less than 12 mm, which still partly relies on imports.
In terms of steel for marine platforms, currently, domestically produced steel below EH36 grade can fully meet application requirements, but varieties above F grade, Z-direction impact, or ultra-thick specifications (over 100 mm) are mostly provided by foreign steel companies. Chinese steel companies should work harder in this area.
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