SteelOrbis Shanghai
In recent years China's container industry has developed rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 10 percent. Three million standard containers are produced annually, covering 90 percent of global container output. As reported by Tianjin Customs, from January to July 2007, the quantity of exports from Tianjin ports reached 317,000 units with a total value of $330 million, up 25.5 percent and 84.9 percent respectively. From January to July, the average unit price of exported containers of all specifications was $1,027, up 47.4 percent over last year. The average unit price of a 20-foot container was $1,887 with an increase of 20.3 percent, while the average unit price of other containers (including containers for liquids) was up 31.9 percent.
In 2007, global trade is expected to increase by around 10 percent, which may directly result in intensive demand for international container transportation. Demand for containers on international Trunk Shipping Lines such as China-Europe, China-America and China-Japan is considerably strong, and new container ships are being built to meet this demand. Judging by the current orders on hand at international shipyards, 2007 looks like a peak year for the delivery of container transportation capacity. According to the views of some insiders, the volume of ocean transport via containers will reach 360 million standard containers in 2007, up 8.6 percent over last year.
Since the steel and wood markets have been on the rise (and these are the raw materials for container production), some large shipping companies and container leasing companies have made bookings ahead of schedule so as to reduce their costs. Meanwhile, the international container market is facing a period that will see new containers take the place of old ones, since the life cycle of a container is roughly ten years.
The annual consumption of steel products in China's container industry is around four million metric tons. In recent years, the domestic mills have been active in developing quality steel for containers. For example, after Baogang and Wugang successively developed and produced steel plates for containers, Angang, Zhugang, Taigang and Bengang have all achieved success in developing container quality steel plates. Currently, 55 percent of the steel used in container manufacturing in China is produced domestically, and both output of containers and consumption of national steel in container production are on the rise.
However, some experts state that China is still putting more emphasis on the production of medium and low grade containers, as opposed to high class containers and containers with special specifications. Consequently, the new challenge for China is to develop steel plates for high grade container construction.