South Korea's POSCO Co. Ltd. said on Friday it would invest a total of $2 billion to boost output of steel plates for ships as the booming shipbuilding industry led to higher demand for the product.

　　POSCO said in a statement it would spend 1.79 trillion won ($1.96 billion) to build a new domestic plant and related facility to produce steel plates.

　　With the new plant and planned upgrades to its existing facility， POSCO plans to raise its steel plate output to 7 million tonnes a year in 2011 from 3.8 million estimated for this year， the company said.

　　韓國浦項制鐵上周五表示，由于造船業的蓬勃發展帶動了產品需求升高，該公司將總共投資20億美元來提高鋼板的產出。

　　浦項制鐵在聲明稿中表示，將斥資1.79兆(萬億)韓元(約合19.6億美元)在韓國國內興建一座新廠來生產鋼板。

　　浦項制鐵表示，在新廠及現有設備按計劃升級后，在2011年，公司鋼板的年產量將從今年的380萬噸提升到700萬噸。