Provided there are no mass cancellations of orders, steel demand from China's shipbuilding industry is expected to increase to 17-18 million mt per year by 2011, a rise of more than 20 percent compared with the estimated consumption for this year, said Tan Naifeng, deputy director of the information branch of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI).
According to Mr. Tan, in the coming two years South Korean mills will basically meet the demand for shipbuilding plate of shipbuilding enterprises in their country, causing a sharp shrinkage in imports of Chinese shipbuilding plate; meanwhile, considering the slow development of the shipbuilding market in India and in other emerging countries, their import volume will not offset the reduction of South Korean imports of shipbuilding plate from China. However, according to the projections for completed shipbuilding output in the coming years, Mr. Tan said that China's domestic demand for shipbuilding steel will continue to grow, rising by 20 percent over the coming two years from the estimated consumption of 13.3 million for the current year.