After experiencing the glory of the 1960s and 1970s and the depression of the 1980s, the shipbuilding industry has entered a period of gradual recovery and activity. Facing fierce domestic and foreign market competition, my country's shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly. Now its shipbuilding capacity ranks third in the world after Japan and South Korea. Its annual shipbuilding capacity has reached 3,003.5 million tons, and nearly one million tons of shipbuilding steel plates are needed. After several years of hard work, domestic shipbuilding steel plates have gone from being produced by a few companies in the past to being produced by almost all medium and thick plate manufacturers; from the past, there were only a single variety and specification of general-strength ship plates to now having more varieties and specifications of general-grade ship plates. and high-strength ship plates; the self-sufficiency rate increased from less than 30% in 1992 to 80% in 1999. It can be said that the development of the shipbuilding industry directly guides and promotes the advancement of production technology of shipbuilding steel plates. At the same time, my country's medium and thick plate industry provides a reliable guarantee for the shipbuilding industry to enter the international market and participate in international competition.
As a special steel material, shipbuilding steel plates have very high requirements in terms of variety, quality, and delivery time. Although most domestic manufacturers can produce, there are only a few manufacturers that have achieved a certain production scale. Judging from the production ratio of ship plates of various manufacturers, several key manufacturers have concentrated on the production of shipbuilding plates with high technical content and added value. In fact, ship plates have become the dominant product of manufacturers such as Pudong Steel Thick Plate Factory and Chongqing Steel No. 5 Factory. product
The ship plate steel grades that can be produced in China include general-strength grades A, B, D, and E and high-strength grades AH32, DH32, EH32, AH36, DH36, and EH36; the ship plate specifications that can be produced range from 5-80mm x 1500 -3900mm x 3000-12000mm.
Judging from the production of ship plate types in recent years, the output of general-strength A and B-class ship plates accounts for 90%, and the output of high-strength ship plates is less than 10%. General-strength D and E-class ship plates and high-strength ship plates are basically produced by Anshan Iron and Steel New Rolling Plate Plant, Pudong Steel Thick Plate Plant and Wugang Thick Plate Plant. It should be noted that no manufacturer has yet developed and produced high-strength ship plates such as AH40, DH40, and EH40, as well as ultra-low-temperature high-strength ship plates of FH32, FH36, and FH40 grades. In terms of specifications, most manufacturers can only produce ship plates with a thickness of less than 30mm and a width of less than 2200mm. Obviously, there is still a gap compared with the demand for ship plates in terms of varieties and specifications.
