Hyundai Steel expects steel plate orders from Japan

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Thursday that it is expecting to win at least 10,000 tons of steel plates in monthly orders from Japanese shipbuilders. "We are expecting to export our steel plates to Japanese shipbuilders in the second half of the year," a company official said. "Also, three or four firms are expected to place orders to us regularly," he said. Hyundai Steel started production of heavy plates used for ships at its furnaces in Dangjin, 123 kilometers southwest of Seoul, in April 2010. Its annual production of steel plates currently reaches 1.5 million tons. The steelmaker, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, is also seeking to build another steel-plate plant to meet growing demand. It expects its output of steel plates to increase to 3.5 million tons by 2013. In April last year, Hyundai Steel inked a deal to supply 100,000 tons of steel plates to Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, known as Vinashin, every year. Shares of Hyundai Steel were trading at 135,000 won on the Seoul bourse as of 2:10 p.m., up 2.27 percent.