Chinese medium plate production & sales in Q1

Chinese medium plate production & sales in Q1

China produced 13.02 million tons of medium plates in the first quarter of 2005. The figure marks 15.7% year on year increase. The non-alloy plate production accounted for 8.3 million tons of the total production and showed 12.9% year-on-year increase. Low alloy plate production showed a robust increase of 32.24% from the first quarter of 2004 and reached 3.45 million tons. On the other hand, alloy plate production excluding stainless steel showed an 11.4% decline to 263'000 tons. Stainless steel production reached 200'000 tons from the weak 40'000 tons in the first quarter of 2004. Shipbuilding plate production also showed a sound increase of 39.9% and reached 1.04 million tons. Container plate production reached 576'000 tons with 24.7% year on year increase and pipeline plate porduction reached 435'000 tons, almost doubling the 220'000 tons in 2004. Overall sales in the first quarter showed 16% year-on-year increase to 13 million tons. Medium plate exports spurred to 910'000 tons from 134'000 tons in the first quarter of 2004