At the unveiling of the short-range outlook of worldsteel at the association’s 50th annual meeting held in Dubai on October 10-11, the issue of the digitalization of the steel industry came to the fore, especially in light of the announcement in April this year by the European Commission (EC) of its strategy for the digitalization of industry. Specifically, the question was posed whether digitalization represents a threat or opportunity for the steel industry.
Worldsteel director general Edwin Basson stated that digitalization is positive in that it provides a better overview of the value chain, going on to say that the impact of digitalization in terms of consumer goods needs to be watched. New worldsteel chairman John Ferriola, also head of US steelmaker Nucor Corporation, said that advances in digitalization offer a whole new world of opportunities and can improve the quality of products, and so digitalization is very exciting. It can boost the commercial aspect, he said, and allows the industry to take better care of customers.
T. V. Narendran, chairman of the worldsteel economics committee and managing director of Indian steel producer Tata Steel, said that digitalization offers huge opportunities in cost-efficiency and stakeholder experience. He also said that the industry will have to watch how steel utilization will change in the context of digitalization.
For his part, outgoing worldsteel chairman Wolfgang Eder, also chairman of Austria-based voestalpine, stated, “In the future, you will see steel companies running themselves.” Basson also remarked that steel companies in the US are currently experimenting with digitalization.