Abstract:
In the early days, bottlenecks in steel production were created because of the steelmaker's production capacities. However, consumer demand now creates the bottleneck. Therefore, steel production in Japan will not increase unless customers have a strong attraction to Japanese steel. In addition, as it will be difficult to increase the domestic demand, capturing external demand is important for the survival of domestic companies. In order to increase the steel demand, steelmakers must pursue the production using cheap, low-grade raw materials with low fixed-cost processes, technology to differentiate the characteristics of general-grade products, and the development of new global demand. To achieve this, Japanese companies must maintain and improve their technological development capabilities, strengthening their relations with universities to collaborate on innovative projects, and securing the resources of researchers and engineers.
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