In the first eleven months of 2009 wide and heavy plate sales of Inner Mongolia-based Chinese steel producer Baotou Steel recorded a positive performance reaching 1.13 million mt, mainly due to the company's focus on special-purpose steel.
With a designed annual capacity of 1.4 million mt, Baotou Steel's wide and heavy plate production line was put into operation in 2008, at a time of continuous price decrease and sharp demand reduction in the steel market. Aiming to avoid the low prices of common wide and heavy plate, Baotou Steel started to develop shipbuilding plate, boiler plate, bridge plate, high-strength plate and other new products, and thereby also boosted its sales.