As shipbuilding sector suffers order cancellations, steel plate oversupply looms ahead

China is expected to breach the 20.2-million ton (mt) mark, set in 2008, for ship plate production this year. Against this, Chinese shipbuilders are expected to consume 11.7 mt of ship plate, report quoted China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry senior official Tan Naifen as saying. Of the 13.3 mt of steel likely to be consumed by China, 1.2 mt will be sections and bulb flats and 400,000 tons will consist of pipe.
New plate mills will come on-stream in China while steel exports to China's biggest ship plate consuming countries - including Korea and Vietnam - will be significantly lower, the report added.
Tan expressed concern over the likelihood of order cancellations and delivery delays. This because bulk carriers have been hard hit by the slowdown and 65 percent of China's 204.6 million dwt of shipbuilding orders are for these vessels.