South Korean steel mills and local shipyards have still failed to reach agreement in current negotiations on shipbuilding plate prices, as reported by media sources.
The South Korean shipbuilding companies have asked domestic steel mills to decrease their shipbuilding plate prices by KRW 100,000/mt ($86/mt) due to lower prices for ships and oversupply of plate. However, the steel mills maintain that they can only reduce prices slightly or else they will start to incur losses.
The shipyards insist that prices should be reduced in line with the supply situation, while observing that ex-China steel plate prices have declined to $700/mt FOB. Some South Korean shipyards have reduced their purchase volumes in order to place pressure on the domestic plate producers.