The cost of steel plates has risen around the world. Two of South Korea's largest steel mills have recently announced that they will be raising the price of shipbuilding plates by US$72 per tonne to US$792 per tonne beginning this month.
In China, mills have been steadily hiking prices over the last year by 30 percent and Japanese steel industries have similarly announced a decision to increase prices.
The increase of steel plate prices will of course, have an impact on newbuild prices and one broker cautioned not to expect to see newbuilding prices come down.
"Shipyards are very concerned about their costs; and yards that have decent order backlogs prefer to wait and see," Asiasis quoted one broker as saying.
The Chairman of the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan, Takao Motoyama, called for steel mills to reduce their prices. One broker explained that small and medium sized shipyards may not be able to cope with the increase of steel plate prices because they will not be able to raise the price of newbuild vessels if they wish to stay competitive.
"They need the down payments from new orders to help them get over the financial problems," the broker said.
