During the week ending June 25, prices of steel plate products in the Chinese market have continued to decline, indicating a slight softening, while prices of shipbuilding plate have seen a larger decrease. Average prices of plate and shipbuilding plate in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Activity in China's steel plate market has been relatively slack. At present, plate traders' inventories are not high on the whole. Most traders are not optimistic on the prospects for the market in July, and they believe that prices are unlikely to show significantly decreases though also lacking the necessary support for an increase in the short term.
The prices of shipbuilding plate showed a bigger decrease as compared to other plate products, reflecting the difficult situation in the global shipbuilding sector. In the January-May period of the current year, China's completed ship output volume totalled 22.53 million dwt, down 10.1 percent year on year.
Overall, China's domestic steel plate market is expected to maintain its downward trend in the coming seven days.