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.