Challenges to the supply chain in the steel industry

Abstract

This article discusses challenges to the supply chain in today's steel industry. In the steel industry, the supply chain, apart from actual production, is an extremely complex task, requiring the consideration of numerous factors and objectives. Sharply fluctuating demand, raw materials supply and uncertain prices produce a negative impact on steel production. At the same time, the supply chain of the steel industry has to consider multiple objectives and multiple stages of steel production and supply chain simultaneously in a global market. It requires an optimised supply chain alternative by extending visibility of demand based on economy and market, raw material supply based on transportation, and suppliers and their price. This article is concerned with certain factors of the supply chain in the steel industry; it discusses the challenges to the supply chain in the steel industry, and proposes certain ways to achieve an optimised supply chain and win-win path in visibility across all participants, from steel producers to customer demand. Finally, some results are summarised.