The American Steel Industry

What is the cause of the American steel industry's deplorable situation today? Troubled in many areas-competition from imports, technology implementation, cost and utilization of raw materials, investment policy, philosophy of management, and union attitudes, to name only a few-can the industry survive? These are the questions Dr. Kiers confronts in this book. Unless answers can be found, he warns, the result will be further decline and, finally, bankruptcy or nationalization. Unwilling to accept either possibility, Dr. Kiers challenges the steel industry to achieve a rebirth he sees as feasible only through a hard-nosed, realistic approach, an insistence on innovation, and a willingness to apply discipline to every facet of steel making. Dr. Kiers presents an in-depth analysis of Japan's steel industry, compares it with the U.S. industry, and discusses U.S. technology and import problems with reference to Japan. He then inventories the factors responsible for the current problems and lays the groundwork for a new start, going on to point out that the difficulties faced by the steel industry may be a portent of what will happen to other industries unless they, too, reassess both labor and management attitudes and make radical changes.

Luc Kiers has been an international business consultant for over forty years, most recently in the steel industry.

Introduction -- The American Steel Industry: An Appraisal -- The Japanese Steel Industry: Background and Silent Dynamics -- Imports in Perspective -- The Technology Gap -- AMSTEC/JANESTEP: A Comparison of Two Hypothetical Steel Companies -- A Plan for Action -- The American Steel Industry: Expansion Programs, 1980 and 1983 -- Interview with Frank B. Gibney -- The MacNeil/Lehrer Report "Steel Crisis" -- Japan's Steel Industry: An Ultramodern Complex