PRODUCTION, TECHNOLOGY AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT ASPECTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY.

The world iron and steel industry has had significant changes during the last 27 years. After a long period of growth which continued throughout the 1960s, long term structural changes began in every region of the world, with steel consumption declining in the industrialized countries by the 1970s. The major structural changes presently in progress in favor of developing countries, characterized by slow market growth, locational shift in production and consumption, changing trade patterns and managerial and technical requirements, is worth examining. The paper focuses on structural changes, locational shift in production, consumption and changing trade patterns in the world iron and steel industry, with emphasis on the role of developing South East Asian countries, and implications of those changes for developed and developing countries in South East Asia. Some of the new processes and systems of the iron and steel industry which have emerged and radically altered the traditional economies of scale in steel making are examined.