Statistics from Changshu Inspection and Quarantine Bureau show that for the first five months of the year, a total of 5,120 tons of vessel steel plates were exported via Changshu, a Yangtze port city in Jiangsu province. This represented a year-on-year increase of 140 per cent. In terms of value, the goods were worth nearly US$4m, up 90 per cent.

Most of the shipments were bound for Taiwan, India, Singapore and Vietnam.