China's Liaoning Province-based steelmaker Anshan Steel (Ansteel) has announced that in 2008 it sold 2,100,000 mt of shipbuilding plates locally, accounting for 12.8 percent of the Chinese market for this product, compared with sales of 703,000 mt in 2004.
In 2008, Ansteel produced over 10 million mt of structural plates for ships and ocean platforms. Also in 2008, Ansteel exported 185,000 mt of shipbuilding plates, up from just 72,000 mt in 2004. Ansteel was China's biggest exporter of shipbuilding plates last year. Meanwhile, the producer's total exports for 2008 reached 1.018 million mt.
With an annual capacity of 3 million mt of shipbuilding plates, Ansteel's product ranges cover all structural plate varieties, supplying 128 steel grades for shipbuilding use.