According to Mr Li Zhongshuiang General Manager from Shanghai Ruikun Metal Material Co Ltd "There have been no signs showing that shipbuilding plate market price will stop declining by the end of September. Thus, market price is likely to keep sliding trend in October."

According to Ruikun's market research, market prices for specialty plates continue to fall down. Large scale dealers cut their spot quotations for shipbuilding plate by some CNY 150 per tonne to CNY 300 per tonne on average. The market saw a few transactions. At the same time, export volume shrank, possibly resulting in continuously falling futures price. Demand will be also comparatively lower in October casting certain negative influence on shipbuilding plate market price after the National Day Holiday.

1. 8mm CCSB shipbuilding plate made by Baosteel and Xinyu Steel was posted by CNY 6450 per tonne by Ruikun down by CNY 150 per tonne WoW
2. 10mm at CNY 6250 per tonne down by CNY 350 per tonne
3. 12mm and 14mm at CNY 6050 per tonne down by CNY 250 per tonne
4. 16mm, 18mm and 20mm at CNY 6000 per tonne down by CNY 300 per tonne.

Mr Li said that the market price would keep a downward trend in October with slighter margin. And the scale could be hardly shifted. He added that dealers of shipbuilding plate should not be pessimistic as a rosy outlook on the future market was still expectable in a long period. China's demand for shipbuilding plate stands will reach some 41.52 million tonnes during 2008 to 2010, 51.41 million tonnes during 2011 to 2015 and 92.93 million tonnes during 2006 to 2015.