ABSTRACT
Due in large part to investment in China and India, the rst decade of the 21st century has added twice as much plate producing capacity to the overall world steel output than did the preceding 30 years. The many application sectors driving this expansion are in infrastructural construction, including pipeline for oil and gas, and shipbuilding. The product mix of new mills is moving upward in width and thickness and toward higher tensile strength. This chapter reviews the resulting changes in the mills themselves and focuses particularly on the ways in which existing mills operated by established plate manufacturers are being upgraded.
