Considering the domestic
shipbuilding industry's stocks of steel plates are nearly exhausted and also the expectations of lower import volumes, South Korea-based Dongbu Steel anticipates that domestic
shipbuilding steel plate sales will rebound in the fourth quarter of the current year.
At the end of April, Dongbu Steel and other South Korean steel plate producers increased their steel plate prices by $148/mt to $1,027/mt. However, South Korea's shipbuilders were active in ordering from foreign markets before this price increase, and so their plate stocks rose from less than 1 million mt in January to 1.3 million mt at the end of July.
According to Dongbu Steel's second quarter report, its steel plate sales volume in April-June was just 912,000 mt, down from 941,000 mt in the first quarter.