It is reported that Jinan Steel, based in province Shandong, the east of China, started the construction of third heavy plate line. The line is expected to be commissioned in October 2009 and the aim of the line is to expand the capacity of high value added heavy plate.

The width of the new line is 4300mm and the design capacity is 1.8 million tonnes per year.

An official said that wide heavy plate, especially shipbuilding wide heavy plate is popular in end users and this is why they construct the line. However, they cannot confirm how many ship plates the line could produce after the commission.

Jinan Steel possesses two heavy plate lines at present. Widths of two lines are 2500mm and 3500mm respectively and total capacity is 3.6 million tonnes per year. It is predicted that two lines would totally produce more than 3.6 million tonnes of medium heavy plate in this year and the output of ship plate could reach 1.8 million tonnes up by 300,000 tonnes in YoY.