Carbon Steel, Sheet & Plate/LEAN AND EFFICIENT -- Companies have become better prepared to handle market challenges in 2012

摘要

ALTHOUGH STEEL DEMAND has improved from last year, economic and market uncertainties remain that will continue to affect the carbon steel industry into 2012, but the industry is better equipped to handle potential volatility now than it was at the beginning of the Great Recession.The industry made many of the right moves before demand dropped and the recession began, says Nancy Gravatt, vice president of communications at the American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, D.C. "Before that period, the industry had done a lot of consolidation and restructuring. It had developed a more efficient business model," she says, noting many of those fundamentals still are in place. Companies not only have changed but also their customers, says John Campo, vice president of market development and contract management at O'Neal Steel Inc., Birmingham, Ala. "We have seen our customer base and ourselves reassess how we manage our business in light of what happened in 2008 and 2009. We found that we can be much more efficient in how we manage our inventories and how we manage our cash and how we manage our people and our assets in general," he says. Having leaner, more efficient operations is helping companies operate in the changing economic environment. "There's no question that the overall general economic environment is a major factor, and our industry is driven by how well the economy does," says Campo. "As a result, I think right now we are looking at a great deal of uncertainty going forward."