Abstract
The steel industry in Asia has been going through a significant structural change. The change is driven by technological progress and choice in iron and steel making, in addition to the growth in steel demand and changes in policy. Most importantly, there are significant differences in steel production technologies in terms of initial investment and minimum-efficient scale. Accordingly, the catch-up strategy of latecomers in steel production is heavily affected by available finance and market size. On the one hand, integrated steel firms characterized by mammoth blast furnaceshave been strengthening their production network by exporting mother products such as slabs and hot coils to their affiliated firms abroad that specialize in the rolling processes. On the other hand, local firms in countries which have no large blast furnaces have been making an effort to substitute the imports of mother products with newly available technologies with less initial investment and less minimum-efficient scale. The interaction among these firms has been an important aspect of the changes in the steel industry in Asia, especially since the 1990s.
