The development trend of medium and heavy steel plate industry in 2023

2023 is the first year to fully implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the key year to implement the "14th Five-Year Plan". The first session of the 14th National People's Congress and the first session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC were opened in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, 2023, respectively. At the first "ministerial channel", Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong proposed to promote stable industrial growth, upgrade and transform traditional industries and 5G development as the focus of this year's work. What are the opportunities and challenges for the downstream enterprises of medium and thick plates in our steel industry?

Medium and thick plate has high comprehensive mechanical properties, and its downstream is mainly engineering machinery and shipbuilding industry, followed by steel structure of construction and pipeline plate of petrochemical industry. In recent years, China's oil and natural gas consumption has continued to increase, and the increase in capital expenditure for oil and gas pipeline construction has driven the demand for pipeline steel.

It is the peak season of the "Golden Three Silver Four" project, and the market starts as expected. The construction machinery industry accounts for a particularly prominent proportion. As the industry with the largest downstream use of medium and thick plates, the supply of domestic construction machinery and equipment will further increase. At the same time, with the gradual recovery of the foreign market and the further mention of the international and domestic double cycle at the policy end, the export volume of foreign countries will further develop to a good state, and the export volume of mining trucks such as new energy series will step up to a new level. At the same time, the market demand for armored equipment and instruments has increased, and the demand for special steel plates will further increase in the later stage.