Analysis of the U.S. Steel Industry

1. Using the information contained in the case, conduct a five-forces analysis of the U.S. Steel industry. What conclusion can you draw from this?

Risk of Entry/Degree of Rivalry: Mini mills were being used by the foreign competition which mean they were able to produce steel at less expensive rates passing that on to their customers.

Barriers to entry: Starting in the 1970's since there were no trade barriers companies overseas were able to manufacture and sell steel for a much lower price here in the United States therefore affecting companies domestically.

Supplier power: Once steel became needed again suppliers were able to multiply what they charged consumers and were able to produce large quantities at a time in order to stay up with demand.

Buyer power: Since there were so many steel companies in competition consumers knew they had the upper hand and were able to get the lowest prices on the metal leaving companies with extremely low profits.

Threat of substitute: Demand had significantly lowered which affected the steel industry. To add to this many people were now switching over to even more less expensive substitutes such as aluminum, plastics and composites.

The conclusion I come to from this is that in an industry there is always going to be competition and in order to have some sort of profit and stay up with everyone else there need to be plans that will need to be put in place so that when there is another decrease in demand companies will still be able to stay afloat somehow. Finding new ways of producing the product without having to pay so much would be the best option for such an industry. The steel company is rising again and staying in business should not be that difficult again.

2. Do you think there are any strategic groups in the U.S. Steel industry? What might they be? How might the nature of competition vary from group to group?

Yes,