The Contemplation of Strategic Management of Internationalization on Steelmaker─A Case Study of Steel Mill C

• Main Authors: Chen,Chang Fu, 陳長富
• Other Authors: Cher-Min Fong / Dr.
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ep5bvx

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 高階經營碩士班 === 95 === Abstract Since the beginning of this new century, global steel industries have gone through dramatic change. From the researches we have observed, the following major changes have taken place. Number one, the‘death spiral’in 2001 to the‘volcanic eruption’in 2003; steel prices appeared as V shape fluctuations. Global steelmakers’ raw materials, including iron ore, coking coal, hot-rolled band, pig iron and even steel scrap, prices are constantly on the rise; Survival Success Surprise was what many people in this business were saying. The second, reflecting this late-2001 pricing catastrophe, steel mills began to adopt new behavior patterns of rationalization─Small is Beautiful ‘. In order to survive in some cases, and to win in others, the steelmakers: a) implemented more rapid production cutbacks once steel prices started to fall; b) closed marginal facilities and c) increased M&A activity.It suddenly became an international trend to merge and merge again;and the appearance of the Acelor Mittal giant steel company, people called this the Metal Mettle Mittal phenomenon. The third was that the Flying-geese Theory and steel industries began to spread across Asia, from Eastern Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, to Northern China, and to Southern India. Asia became the world’s steel industry center. Just as the book,《China Shakes the World: the Rise of a Hungry Nation》describes, China has became a “magnetic field” in the global steel industry. China’s steel production increased rapidly and caused supply to exceed demand. The fourth is that global steel industries are now ushered in the energetic resource constraints era, and not the capital constraints anymore. Upstream mine sources are monopolized, more than 70% of global mining sources are owned by three major companies. In the future, global crude steel manufacturing bases will leave the main steel consuming countries and settle down in countries that are rich in mine resources to produce steel. The fifth is identical with what《The Age of Discontinuity》pointed out. The beginning of a Sigmoid Curve includes Modern Imperatives, Market Smart, and Future Scenarios; the discontinuity of global steel industry and major changes are hard to predict. The demand, growth, and price change models are not the same anymore. However, perhaps there will be a stable New Continuum when discontinuity comes to an end. The local structure of steel industries is also going through dramatic change; it used to resemble a giraffe, now it looks like Steven Spielberg’s ET! Local upstream cannot provide enough semi-product steel, imports of 7 to 8 million tons of semi-product steel manage to keep this in balance. Midstream steel industries, especially single rolling mills flourish. Yet the sizes of downstream processing industries are small with low added value. The demand is not enough to absorb the production of midstream mills, causing midstream steel rolling mills to rely on massive exports. A small head with a big body and skinny legs is like a giraffe, which is just the case in Taiwan’s steel industry. Whenever local steel market is sluggish, the prices are subject to change. Taiwan’s steel is mostly localized in the Asia area, while joining the WTO, internationalization, and globalization will only make competition worse than ever. The plans for a big steel mill in Yunlin and expansion of another large steel mill in Taichung will cause them to face local production surplus problems; the head has become larger than the body, just like ET. Asia’s steel is mainly consumed by China, yet China is constantly increasing production capacity, causing the Taiwan steel material export and domestic market to shrink. If political factors are added into the mix, the market will become even harder to predict. The competition of steel mills in Taiwan faces with China, India, Japan, and Korea steel mills shall prove to be a very harsh test. They made NT $45.1 billion in 2003, NT $65 billion in 2004, NT $65.1 billion in 2005, NT $47.7 billion in 2006; estimates say they will make NT $60∼70 billion in 2007. At least one amount of capital can be made every two years in the Steel Mill C, causing them to have a global leading profitability. Their strategic management is something we should look upon and conduct research on; this also includes their learning and application of strategic planning, their sharing and exchanging of strategic execution experiences, and their innovation or revolution in visions or goals, etc. They are considered a capital and technology intensive industry, and with adequate management systems, they have become the role model of a sustainable competitive advantage and a perpetual operation and sustainable development. High-ranking finance personnel in the government point out that anybody can make money out of the Steel Mill C. Is that really so?! Our research reveals the sustainable competitive advantage of enterprises with high profit and low growth rates, we used the Steel Mill C as an example; the only integrated steel mill in Taiwan that makes everything on its own has a very high productivity that made it become one of the worlds most competitive steel mills. They constantly maintain high productivity with low costs. Thus, their core competence is actually their sustainable competitive advantage in long-term, and not their high market share. When an enterprise develops, it should focus on increasing its profit and growth at the same time; when the profit condition is better than growth, start focusing on growth (and vice versa). According to the World-Class Steelmakers’ rankings by World Steel Dynamics, we find the mill is trying to be far away from a haze of low growth by expanding capacity. To come up with the following five internationalization strategy suggestions is that we give to our steel mill subject: 1. Construct competitive powers and strategies of growth with quantity and quality of production at the same time. 2. Maneuver to enter international markets.of low cost product and high growth boom 3. Focus on strategic products and valuable international product strategies. 4. Take control of multi-national vertical integral investment mineral related strategies. 5. Come up with the positioning strategies of a perpetual operation and sustainable development. within the global steel industry value chain. Have a vision, persist on fulfilling the core values, grasp hold of core abilities, construct a competitive edge, seize chances, actively plan beforehand, and take control of the future. Choose the right time, use the right tactics, and do the right things to survive and succeed as a going concern of world class steelmaker.