Research Paper on:
Integrated Steel Mills and Mini Mills

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
called mini mills. Mini mills make steel sheet and large structural girders, which have been the key part of integrated steelmakers. Minis have had previous success selling lightweight steel products  such as wire rods, light structural beams and reinforcing bars. They are able to price their products lower than the big steel mills because they melt scrap metal in very  efficient electric furnaces. By comparison, the giant mills use coke ovens and blast furnaces. Large steel mills have taken a number of steps to cut costs but even so,  mini mills will keep the competitive advantage because they have lower costs for raw material and also because they offer flexible work schedules that result in higher productivity. In 1987,  Robert Crandall from Brookings Institution said that "the scrap-based mini-mills could double their share of U.S. steel output to 40% by the end of the century" (Kirkpatrick et al, 1987,  p. 8) As the years have passed, large mills continue to suffer deficits. Some have attempted to attack the threat of cheap steel from overseas by running their own mini  mills. They have found, however, that it is nearly impossible to duplicate the success of Nucor, especially when it comes to making higher grades of steel. For example, Trico, which  is a joint venture between Americas LTV, Japans Sumitomo and British Steel has face enormous problems with its mini mill in Alabama. In fact, they lost $40 million during the  first half of 1998. At the same time, Nucor posted excellent profits every quarter during the last twenty years. Nucor says its success has more to do with culture than  with technology. The chairman says that they "operate it at full capacity and pay a non-unionized workforce handsomely. Even other mini-mill managers find that combination hard-let alone integrated firms with