South Korean heavy steel plate imports reached 4,183,110 mt in 2011, including 2,379,266 mt from China, accounting for 57 percent of the country's total heavy plate imports and up 8.7 percent compared to 2,188,000 mt in 2010, as reported by South Korean media sources.
South Korea's heavy steel plate imports from China increased in 2011 due to the relatively low prices of Chinese plate, while heavy plate imports from Japan in the given year totaled 1,752,000 mt, equal to 42 percent of the overall import figure.