Niche market strategies of local players in the European steel industry

This study considers the local players in the European steel industry, whose amounts of crude production are more or less 5 million tons per annum. They do not belong to the Pan-EU mega-group of steel mills with more than 15 million tons of crude production yearly. However, these mid-sized steel mills in European countries have been originated from the strong foundation of steel, scientifically and technically, as well as the centennial history. They concentrate on the niche market adjacent to the local area, which takes advantage of the geographical location. The companies considered here are VoestAlpine in Austria, Salzgitter in Germany, Rautaruukki in Finland, and SSAB in Sweden. Their corporate strategies are compared on the basis of product mix and sales structure. And, the deep analysis for each company is performed, such as business strategies with the sales volumes, market strategies, competitiveness improvement planning, and R&D policies with the technology management. These analysis results can be benchmarked as the cases of best practices for domestic steel mills, especially mid and small sized companies, that develop business and market strategies for the sustainable growth and profitability.