International trends in steel mini-mills : keeping pace with technological change

Competition in a period of rapid technological change is the subject of this report. The steel mill industry is of considerable interest to less developed countries and was chosen to investigate whether organizational and technological innovations are of any relevance. The answer is a resounding yes. Organizational changes, automation, and use of new materials to change the production process and to transform the product itself were found to be of tremendous importance. The changes quite overwhelm simple differences in factor cost.