en.Wedoany.com Reported - Major shipbuilding enterprises and supporting steel companies in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China, have full order books, with ship construction orders booked through 2030. As vessel types upgrade to Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and 22,000 TEU container ships, demand for high-end steel has surged. The localization rate of high-strength crack arrest special steel has reached 100%, with prices for the same specifications 15% to 20% lower than imported products. Currently, the comprehensive performance of China's marine high-end steel has ranked among the top globally.
Nantong, Jiangsu, is a key shipbuilding hub in China. Wei Jun, deputy general manager of a large local shipbuilding enterprise, stated that multiple construction projects are being carried out simultaneously in the docks, with the company operating at full capacity. Production capacity is nearly saturated, and steel consumption has risen sharply. Orders at surrounding supporting steel mills are also fully booked, with some high-end steel plates in short supply. In recent years, the rapid growth of automobile exports has also created new demand for ultra-thin plates used in car carriers, to strictly control the vessel's center of gravity and ensure navigation stability. The total output of marine steel, including crack arrest steel, wide thin plates for cruise ships, high-strength ship plates, and polar low-temperature ship plates, produced by this company in 2026 is expected to exceed 2 million tons, with long-term orders on hand scheduled for production through 2028.
The primary driver of the surge in demand for high-end special steel is the increasing size and complexity of vessel types. For large container ships, the key structural part of the main hull—the torsion box—must use high-strength crack arrest special steel. For 22,000 TEU container ships, this type of special steel accounts for about 5% of the total usage, with a price per ton 800 to 1,000 RMB higher than ordinary ship plates. Five years ago, this product was mainly imported, but now it has been fully localized. Crack arrest steel is primarily used in critical load-bearing parts such as hatch coaming top plates and upper decks, serving as the "lifeline" for ensuring hull structural safety. To meet the construction standards of larger, high-end, and customized vessels, Chinese steel enterprises have continuously iterated production processes and broken through technical barriers. Quality indicators such as steel stability, uniformity, and thickness tolerance have all reached internationally leading levels.
Strong downstream demand has driven up prices for high-end steel, with the average market price of ship plates rising from 4,100 RMB per ton to around 4,300 RMB. To hedge against raw material price fluctuations, shipbuilding companies mostly adopt a price-locking model. The steady improvement in China's supply capacity of high-end marine steel has strongly supported the sustainable development of the country's shipbuilding industry.
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