China has canceled a 5-percent export tariff on steel plates used in shipbuilding to help overseas sales, China Ship News reported.

The removal of the tax effective yesterday will improve the price advantage that the Chinese plates have in shipbuilding countries such as South Korea. Separately, the newspaper said Hebei Wenfeng Iron and Steel Co and Tangshan North Jiayuan Steel Processing & Distribution Co are building a 3.18-billion-yuan (US$466 million) ship-plate factory in Caofeidian, an industrial zone 220 kilometers east of Beijing.

(Shanghai Daily December 2, 2008)