Changes in the layout of American iron and steel industry and its reasons

Basic layout of American steel industry

The United States has a large territory and relatively even distribution of resources. The regional distribution factors affecting American steel industry mainly include raw materials, transportation and steel consumption.

From the development history of American iron and steel industry, its layout follows the two principles of resource proximity and market proximity in the early stage of iron and steel industry development. After entering the 1970s, market proximity became the first principle of layout.

The long-process steel enterprises in the United States are mainly concentrated in the Great Lakes region.

The advantage of this region as the center of American steel industry lies in its proximity to the raw material base, which can form a close industrial chain cluster with the downstream steel industry.

For example, the iron ore reserves along Lake Superior are nearly 8 billion tons, accounting for about 80% of the total reserves in the United States; In Pennsylvania, there is abundant coking coal; Near Lake Erie, there are limestone mines.

In addition, the land and water transportation in the Great Lakes region is convenient, and iron ore can be directly delivered to the factories along the lake by water transportation, with low freight rate.

The Great Lakes region has thus formed five major steel bases, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, which constitute the backbone of the American steel industry.

At the same time, the area along the lake is a developed area for machinery manufacturing, automobile and metal processing.

For example, Pittsburgh, the steel capital of the United States, is not only a relatively concentrated area of steel industry production, but also a relatively concentrated area of heavy machinery manufacturing, chemistry, atomic energy, electrical equipment, metal processing and transportation machinery, thus providing convenient geographical conditions for the formation of industrial chain clusters between the steel industry and the downstream steel industry, and providing guarantees for direct transactions and direct logistics supply between steel enterprises and steel consumption enterprises.

Using local iron ore and coking coal from Kentucker, gadsden Steel Plant and other factories were built in southern Alabama, forming the steel industry center in the southern region.

During World War II, steel mills were built in Jennifer, Utah and fontana, California, forming the western iron and steel industry center.

Because 90% ~ 95% of the steel produced by the American steel industry is used to meet domestic consumption, the steel production plant built in the inland of the United States is adjacent to the industrial zone that consumes steel.

Market layout in the early stage of enterprise restructuring and development

From 65438 to the early 1980s, American steel enterprises were mostly small independent enterprises. For example, some enterprises only have furnaces for melting ore into pig iron, some enterprises only have rotary crushers and forging equipment for processing pig iron into iron bars or plates, and some enterprises only process iron bars and plates into rails, iron sheets, nails and wires.

Restricted by traffic factors, these small iron and steel enterprises limit the sales area of their products to a certain range, and have relatively stable customer groups and circulation channels within this range.

In these independent small iron and steel enterprises, middlemen buy products from one company and then sell them to another manufacturer for profit, which leads to extremely high steel procurement costs.

It is an inevitable choice for iron and steel enterprises to integrate the production process, remove the price increase link of middlemen and establish a brand-new production and operation mechanism in the iron and steel industry.

At the same time, with the development of iron and steel industry, the construction and operation funds needed to build large-scale iron and steel plants, including blast furnace, converter, open hearth furnace and rolling mill, have reached the point where a single enterprise (or a single capital) can't bear it alone, thus promoting many small-scale iron and steel enterprises to move towards alliances and replacing small-scale production and operation models with steel joint enterprise models.

1890 Carnegie Corporation established a new steel joint venture, Carnegie Steel Company, through mergers and acquisitions. There are several steel enterprises with financial ties (shares) under its control, and they have encountered operational problems. The total capital of the company reached 320 million dollars.

In the same year, Derel Iron and Steel Company (capital 1 100 million US dollars), National Iron and Steel Company (steel pipe production accounts for 70% of the total output of the United States), National Iron and Steel Company composed of 8 independent steel mills, American Tinplate Company composed of 38 independent steel mills, American Sheet Company, American Hoop Company and American Steel Wire Company were established one after another.

190 1 year, J·P· Morgan reorganized Carnegie Steel Company, Fiji Deere Steel Company, National Steel Pipe Company, American Tin Plate Company and other large steel enterprises, and established American Steel Company. The company's assets reached1400 million USD, before and after 1 1 year (1838).

The reorganization of American iron and steel enterprises is firstly the reorganization of capital, and secondly the realization of economies of scale in a single factory.

Limited by technical and equipment conditions, from the end of 18 to the beginning of the 20th century, the optimal scale of a single factory is the annual output of crude steel of 200,000-400,000 tons.

By 1935, there were only 44 single plants with annual crude steel output exceeding 400,000 tons in the United States.

This means that any steel enterprise group that reorganized dozens or even hundreds of small steel mills and produced millions of tons of steel did not have the technical and economic conditions to simply integrate these reorganized enterprises into a steel production base, which also determined that any one million-ton steel enterprise in the United States at that time would have multiple steel production bases.

For thousands of reorganized small iron and steel enterprises, if the result of reorganization is only to close the door on the spot, then the original operators and employees of these enterprises will have strong resistance.

Therefore, when small steel enterprises in the United States unite to form large enterprise groups, enterprises in the upstream and downstream process links in the same area will often be integrated into a large steel joint production plant; For some small enterprises with only steel rolling capacity, restructuring is not to eliminate them, but to maintain the original production scale and consolidate the original market share from the perspective of integrating market resources.

The biggest benefits of the reorganization of large iron and steel enterprise groups are as follows: first, monopoly is formed on some iron and steel products; The second is to integrate the market resources of small enterprises, rationally delimit their respective sales areas, and avoid vicious competition in the same industry; Thirdly, the single enterprises related to upstream and downstream processes are integrated into joint enterprises, and all process links realize collaborative production, which greatly reduces operating costs and expands the profit space of large enterprise groups.

Generally speaking, American steel enterprises adopt direct selling mode in steel sales, which is inseparable from its specific development process and is an inevitable choice for American steel enterprises under the conditions of market economy.

Regional distribution of American steel industry after 1970s.

From 1973 to 1974, the crude steel output of the United States reached a historical peak, and the crude steel output of the top 10 large iron and steel complex accounted for more than 75% of the national total output.

Eight of them have an annual output of crude steel exceeding 5 million tons.

10 iron and steel company, except for one enterprise of inland iron and steel company, which has only one steel complex production base, all other major iron and steel companies are composed of steel production plants of different scales, which are distributed all over the country.

For example, at that time, American Steel Company had 13 steel production plants, and Bethlehem Steel Company had 8 steel production plants.

Among the steel joint production plants owned by these large steel enterprises, Indiana Steel Plant, Gree Steel Plant and Power-deficient Steel Plant have the largest crude steel output, with annual output of 7.3 million tons, 7 million tons and 6 million tons respectively.

This shows that for a large steel enterprise like American Steel Company, its crude steel and steel production is not concentrated in one or two steel mills, and its nearly 30 million tons of crude steel and steel production is composed of several factories. The production scale of large factories (crude steel and steel products) can reach five or six million tons, while that of small factories is only a few hundred thousand tons, and the scale of most factories is around12 million tons.

These factories are distributed all over the country and directly serve the steel users in the region.

Up to now, the output of crude steel or steel products in the largest unit production plant of American steel industry is still controlled at around 7 million tons.

According to the statistics released by AISI in September, 1985, there were more than 300 steel enterprises in the United States at that time, of which 92 had crude steel production capacity and the other 200 were mainly steel rolling enterprises.

The production plants of these more than 300 steel enterprises are located in 299 regions of 39 States in the United States.

Because American steel enterprises adhere to the principle of market proximity when setting up production plants, the steel logistics transmission distance of American steel enterprises is greatly shortened, basically controlled within 700 kilometers, and the conventional transportation distance is about 400 kilometers to 500 kilometers.

After World War II, road traffic in the United States developed rapidly. By the 1960s, the transportation distance of 400-500 kilometers can completely realize the "point-to-point" steel supply between steel enterprises and steel users by means of automobile transportation.

According to the statistics of American Railway Association, in 1972, among the transportation modes of steel (including pig iron) in the United States, railways account for 43.7%, automobiles account for 5 1. 1%, and other modes account for 5.2%. Among the transportation modes of steel products (deep-processed products of plates and wires), railways account for 17.3%, automobiles account for 80.4%, and other modes account for 2.3%.

In steel sales, if the distance between producers and consumers is long, steel transportation will inevitably require a combination of various modes of transportation, which will not only make it difficult to ensure timely delivery, but also lead to a large number of logistics participants due to the change of transportation carriers, increasing the logistics cost and various transaction costs in the steel sales process.

The proximity of American steel enterprises to the market and the reasonable control of the scale of each production plant not only control the various costs in steel circulation, but also realize direct transactions with steel users.

Therefore, the direct selling mode of American steel enterprises is closely related to its reasonable multi-regional layout.

The rise of short process strengthens the direct selling model.

The United States has accumulated a large amount of scrap steel in the long-term industrialization process, which provides sufficient scrap steel resources for electric furnace steelmaking.

Compared with traditional long-process steel mills, short-process electric furnace steel mills have many advantages: small fixed investment, mainly using scrap steel as raw materials, less energy and resource consumption, and small floor space; Compared with low energy consumption, the impact on the environment is small; The factory can be close to the origin and market of scrap steel resources, and it is flexible to start and stop the furnace.

In addition, the short-flow EAF steelmaking plant is a newly-built enterprise, and there is no strong trade union organization, so the labor cost is relatively low.

Therefore, since the 1970s, the short-process EAF steelmaking plant has flourished in the United States, and its production capacity has expanded significantly.

1972 The crude steel output of short-flow EAF steelmaking plant exceeded 20 million tons for the first time, accounting for17.7% of the crude steel output in the United States; From 65438 to 0979, the crude steel output of short-flow EAF steelmaking plant exceeded 30 million tons, accounting for 24.6% of the crude steel output in the United States.

From the 1980s to the early 1990s, due to the low price of scrap steel and the adoption of thin slab continuous casting and rolling technology, the economies of scale of a single short-process EAF steel production plant were further improved, and the EAF steel production plant began to enter the market territory of the original long-process joint iron and steel enterprise, that is, the thin plate product market, and maintained a continuous growth trend under the situation that the output of American long-process steel production plants tended to shrink.

2/kloc-0 At the beginning of the century, the output of short-flow electric furnaces in the United States increased by tens of millions of tons with low cost and high efficiency.

In 2004, the crude steel output of short-flow EAF steelmaking plant exceeded 50 million tons, accounting for 53.6% of the crude steel output in the United States from 37% in 1990; In 2008, the crude steel output of short-flow EAF steelmaking plant reached 53 million tons, accounting for 58% of the crude steel output in the United States.

Short-flow EAF steelmaking plant has played an important role in optimizing the layout of American steel industry.

These small steel mills choose to be close to water sources and scrap producing areas, and most of them are built in areas where electricity is available and scrap can be obtained at reasonable cost, close to steel consumption areas.

Because the EAF steelmaking plant adopts the market proximity layout, in a sense, it is a kind of strengthening and consolidation of the direct selling model of American steel enterprises.

Japan and South Korea pursue the maximization of the scale of a single steel production plant and tend to the layout of coastal industries, mainly because of their small land area, all raw materials for steel production are imported from abroad, and Japan needs to export about 30 million tons of steel every year (about 30% of its total output).

In this context, the construction of large-scale single steel production plants in Japan and South Korea will not increase the logistics costs of steel enterprises in the process of steel sales, but will also save logistics costs.

The proportion of steel direct sales in China iron and steel enterprises is only about 20%.

On the one hand, this is related to the product structure of iron and steel enterprises, on the other hand, it is related to the over-concentration of production bases of iron and steel enterprises and the long spatial distance between users.

Because the cost of establishing direct selling in China iron and steel enterprises is too high, improving the production layout of iron and steel enterprises is an important guarantee to optimize the steel circulation path and realize direct selling of steel products.

observe

Competitive development of American steel production and circulation enterprises

American steel enterprises mainly sell steel directly, but American steel dealers have the strength to cooperate and talk with American steel enterprises because they have mastered enough imported steel resources and formed a certain scale of steel deep processing capacity.

Strong growth of steel dealers

At the beginning of the 20th century, American crude steel production accounted for 1/3 of global crude steel production.

From the 1940 s to the early 1950 s, the proportion of American crude steel production in the global crude steel production exceeded 50% at the peak. 1953 The annual output of crude steel in the United States exceeded 65438+ 1 100 million tons.

In the next 20 years, the American steel industry still maintains a high production scale.

1973, the crude steel output of the United States reached 65438+368 million tons, creating its historical peak so far.

However, since 1973, the production scale of American steel industry has stagnated and declined due to the rapid increase of production costs, the lag of equipment transformation and the improvement of the competitiveness of Japanese and European steel industries.

It should be pointed out that although the domestic crude steel production scale in the United States ranked behind China and Japan in recent years 10, the annual crude steel production scale fluctuated greatly with the adjustment of the American economic cycle.

However, as the world's largest steel importer and net importer, the annual steel consumption of the United States has been in the top two in the world for nearly 20 years.

Since 1994, the annual apparent consumption of crude steel in the United States has basically been above11million tons. In 2006, the apparent consumption of crude steel exceeded1million tons.

In the past 20 years, the proportion of imported steel in the total steel consumption in the United States also exceeded 20% (1990) in the lowest year and 38% in the highest year (2006).

Such a high proportion of imported steel consumption leads to the apparent consumption of crude steel in the United States is much larger than the output scale of crude steel in the United States.

It should be said that the apparent consumption of crude steel accurately reflects the total steel circulation in the US domestic market.

In the past, when some scholars studied the American steel circulation system, they regarded the American crude steel production scale as the American steel circulation scale, ignored the influence of steel traders with imported steel resources on the American steel market, and did not consider the influence of the low price advantage of imported steel on American steel enterprises and their self-built steel circulation system. Therefore, the analysis of the American steel circulation system is one-sided, and even the qualitative analysis of the American steel circulation structure has various deviations.

The high proportion of imported steel in the American market determines that the business entities engaged in imported steel (that is, steel distributors) occupy a more important position in the American steel circulation, and do not rely entirely on American steel enterprises, which is the most remarkable feature of the American steel circulation system.

Therefore, to study the American steel circulation system, we must consider the influence of a large number of imported steel on the American steel circulation system.

Dealers buy out steel products.

The agency system is generally implemented between American production enterprises and circulation enterprises, but there are various ways of agency.

Generally, automobile agents can only represent the products of one automobile manufacturer, while steel manufacturers generally do not have this requirement.

Among the numerous agency methods, according to their operation mode and settlement system, they can basically be divided into two categories: one is agency system, and the other is distribution system.

Consignment system means that the manufacturer does not settle the payment temporarily when supplying the goods to the distributor, nor does it change the ownership of the products. After the product is sold, the dealer will settle accounts with the manufacturer regularly and charge a certain commission.

Dealers who implement the commission system are usually called agents in a narrow sense.

This kind of organization is rare in American steel circulation system.

Distribution system means that distributors buy out the ownership of products directly from production enterprises and sell them themselves. The main ways to make profits are to obtain differential income and provide value-added services.

Distributors who implement distribution systems are often called distributors.

There is a distribution system between American steel enterprises and steel circulation enterprises, that is, dealers buy out steel from steel enterprises, operate independently and assume sole responsibility for their own profits and losses.

Therefore, in the United States, steel dealers can also be defined as steel dealers.

The steel distribution system in the United States has the following characteristics:

The buyout operation of American dealers is different from that of China steel dealers.

American dealers settle the payment after the steel enterprises deliver all the steel products. Some customers with good long-term credit (including dealers and steel users) can also have a deferred payment period of 1 to 2 months, during which dealers can sell products and recover the payment.

Only dealers with bad credit need to pay a certain deposit in advance, but they also settle all the payment after all the steel products are issued.

China dealers must pay all the advance payment when signing contracts with iron and steel enterprises.

Steel traders with good reputation have strong financing ability.

American banks lend loans to enterprises by relying on their reputation, strength and economic situation.

Steel dealers with good reputation, strong strength and good operating conditions are more likely to get support from banks and steel enterprises.

For example, when dealers face difficulties in payment, banks and other financial institutions will give support to dealers with good credit, and dealers can solve financial difficulties through bank loans.

The price policy of American steel enterprises is more flexible.

American steel enterprises will give bulk discounts to users and steel dealers on the basis of ex-factory price according to the order quantity, and give certain price discounts according to the difference of payment methods and terms.

For example, most American steel enterprises stipulate that the starting point of steel is 20 tons, and regularly publish steel prices and price discount rates under trading conditions such as different order quantities, different payment methods and payment terms.

In this way, even if some small and medium-sized users arrive at the starting point, they often don't order directly from steel mills, because it is more cost-effective for circulation enterprises to order from steel mills, and they can profit from the price difference in batches, which is lower than the price of ordering directly from steel mills in small quantities.

For steel distributors, the buyout distribution system has more advantages than the consignment system.

First, dealers can operate independently, combining processing, restructuring, distribution and other services, so that the added value of products is much higher than the commission obtained by simply selling them on a commission basis; Second, for steel dealers, because the sales target is generally small and medium-sized users, most of the steel sold by dealers need to be processed according to the requirements of users.

Because the processed steel is out of the original form and has new quality and value, it is not suitable to use the agency system (consignment system) for sales, otherwise it will be unfair to dealers.

The price of steel sold by steel enterprises to large steel end-user enterprises is generally lower than that sold to dealers.

This is because the iron and steel enterprises think that the demand of large end-user enterprises is large, and the preferential price is conducive to the long-term cooperative relationship between iron and steel enterprises and users, while dealers can earn value-added profits through steel reprocessing and remanufacturing.

Iron and steel enterprises and dealers compete with each other.

Long-term cooperation with the steel service center includes both American steel enterprises and foreign steel suppliers.

From the point of view of self-produced steel in the United States, steel dealers only control about 30% of the national steel production in the United States, which is in a weak position compared with steel enterprises.

However, because there is no capital affiliation between American steel distributors and American steel enterprises, American steel distributors usually choose between domestic resources and foreign resources in steel resource procurement.

The steel produced by domestic steel enterprises has the advantages of low transportation cost and timely supply, while the imported steel has certain price advantages and variety advantages.

Because American steel dealers control almost all imported steel resources and purchase 30% ~ 40% domestic steel from domestic steel enterprises, it can be inferred that American steel dealers basically control more than 50% of the total domestic steel supply resources, reaching a historical high of 59% in 2006.

In 2008, the steel trading volume of the member enterprises of North American Service Center Association exceeded 75 million tons, which also accounted for 50% of the total steel supply resources in North America.

Therefore, from the perspective of controlling steel resources, in the American steel circulation system, American steel dealers and American steel enterprises are evenly matched, and there are both cooperation and competition between them.

External factors of direct selling steel products by American steel enterprises

American steel enterprises advocate the steel direct selling model, which has its specific historical background and is also a necessary means for American steel enterprises to improve their market influence and stabilize customer resources.

Background of self-built distribution channels in iron and steel enterprises

The preconditions for steel enterprises to sell steel directly are: convenient transportation ensures the direct supply of steel in logistics, the layout of production bases (also known as production plants) of steel enterprises should be reasonable, and the industrial concentration of downstream steel industry is high, which is suitable for large-scale procurement of steel.

At the beginning of its development, the American iron and steel industry already had the above conditions.

● Railways are the most important users in the early stage of the development of American steel industry.

1864, the United States built the first continuous batch converter steelmaking plant in Wyandotte, Michigan. 1876, the United States owned 13 converter plant, and in 1880, the output of converter steel in the United States reached10 million tons, thus laying the foundation for the modern American steel industry.

1the Baltimore-Ohio railway 1830, which was put into operation on October 7, is the first railway in the United States.

From 1830 to 1870, the railway mileage in the United States grew slowly, with an average of 1775 kilometers built every year; From 187 1 to 19 10, the railway mileage increased sharply, with an average of 8,275 kilometers built every year, especially from 1880 to 1890, the United States made every effort to build national railway trunk lines, with an average of 65 kilometers built every year.

19 16 The United States has built a huge railway network with a total length of over 400,000 kilometers.

Railway construction and railway operation and maintenance itself need to consume a lot of steel, which provides opportunities for the development of the steel industry.

1850 or so, the cast iron consumed by American railways accounts for 25% ~ 50% of the national output; From 1870 to 1887, steel rails were smelted with converters, and 70% of steel production in the United States was used for railways, and almost all converter steel was used for rail production. On the one hand, the produced rails are used to lay new railways, on the other hand, they gradually replace pig iron rails. From 1880 to 1897, the average annual steel consumption of newly-built railways in the United States is1500,000 to 2 million tons. For example, 1880 alone consumes more than 800,000 tons of steel.

In addition to producing rails, it is also necessary to provide steel for the manufacture of carriages and locomotives.

At the early stage of the development of American iron and steel industry, the railway was its largest user group.

As the most important user of American iron and steel industry in the early stage of development, railway requires iron and steel enterprises to adapt to the needs of railway construction in steel supply mode.

Because the railway construction in the United States is carried out from east to west, where the railway is laid, the railway tracks are supplied.

At that time, most steel enterprises in the United States were in the east, and land transportation was relatively backward.

How to ensure the supply of steel for railway construction is a severe challenge for American steel enterprises.

American steel enterprises have to unite with railway companies to transport steel to various railway construction sites through existing railway lines to ensure the supply of steel for railway construction.

At that time, Amtrak was in a monopoly position and had strong bargaining power for steel products. Faced with such a huge customer base, American steel enterprises have to establish close economic ties with them, and direct selling has become an inevitable choice for American steel enterprises.

Moreover, with the extension of the railway and the extension of the steel transportation cycle, in order to ensure the supply, American steel enterprises need to establish steel warehouses for railway companies and undertake some functions of distribution centers.

● The construction industry and the automobile industry have gradually become the main downstream steel industries of the US steel industry.

1890 The output of crude steel in the United States reached 3.4 million tons, with a surplus of 2 million tons besides rail production, which provided a resource guarantee for developing other uses of crude steel and rolling new steel varieties.

19 In the mid-1990s, the crude steel output of the United States surpassed that of the United Kingdom, ranking first in the world, which better met the batch demand for steel in various emerging industries.

At the end of 19, the construction industry became the main user group of American steel industry.

1884, Chicago built the world's first 10-storey skyscraper with construction steel, marking that the construction industry has become a new user group of steel.

High-rise buildings with steel and cement as the main materials belong to high-end industries in fashion, which require high technology and capital from construction companies.

Therefore, the construction companies engaged in high-rise building construction at that time were all relatively powerful enterprises, and the industry monopoly was very high.

Iron and steel enterprises supply steel for these construction enterprises, and direct sales and direct supply are the same choices for both sides.

65438+In the early 1990s, the US Navy changed 40 warships into steel hulls. The bulk goods in the Great Lakes region are transported by steel cargo ships; The transportation of goods and people between the United States and Europe requires a large number of steel ships.

The above factors have promoted the development of American shipbuilding industry, which has become the pillar industry of the United States and the main downstream industry of American steel industry.

The shipbuilding industry has promoted the optimization of the variety structure of the iron and steel industry, and plates and steel pipes have become the main products of the American iron and steel industry.

1908, the first four-wheeled vehicle in automobile history-Ford Model T was born in the United States.

In the same year, the American automobile industry formed two major automobile companies, General Motors and Ford. 19 16 years, the American automobile production and sales broke through 1 10,000 vehicles; 1920, American automobile production and sales exceeded 2.2 million; 1929, American automobile production and sales exceeded 5.3 million.

With the rapid development of the automobile industry, the demand for thin steel plates has soared, and the automobile industry has become an important downstream steel industry of the American steel industry, further optimizing the product structure of the steel industry.

The shipbuilding industry and automobile industry in the United States have a relatively high starting point and a relatively high industrial concentration.

The establishment of purchase and sale relationship between iron and steel enterprises and these large enterprises through direct sales will help iron and steel enterprises to reduce circulation costs, improve service quality to users, and establish a good industrial coordination relationship between the two sides.

The strong growth of dealers forced steel enterprises to sell directly.

In the mid-1960s, the American steel industry faced fierce competition from imported steel for the first time.

During the period of 1959, the number of steel workers increased by 1 16 days, forcing domestic steel users in the United States to turn to foreign steel imports, and the United States became a net importer of steel for the first time.

This situation has continued to this day, and steel imports are also increasing year by year. For example, the United States imported 2.7 million tons of steel in 1960 and 1968, and 56 million tons in 2006.

In the United States, steel dealers (steel service centers) buy out steel products from steel enterprises and provide value-added services. There is no capital relationship or binding contractual relationship between steel enterprises and distributors.

China iron and steel enterprises often have to sign a binding contract with the first-class dealers, that is, the dealers need to pay a certain margin to the iron and steel enterprises and complete the sales volume agreed by both parties every month according to the contract requirements.

American steel traders do not need to pay a deposit to buy steel from steel enterprises, and there is no mandatory contract to complete a certain amount of steel sales on a monthly basis.

The constraints of American steel enterprises on steel traders are more reflected in the total control of steel resources.

When imported steel accounts for a low proportion of the total steel consumption in the United States, steel enterprises control most of the steel resources through direct sales, and the settlement price of steel between steel enterprises and steel end-user enterprises has a demonstration guiding role for the settlement price between distributors and steel end-user enterprises.

This is equivalent to steel enterprises controlling the transaction price of steel in the steel market and becoming the leader of steel circulation.

When imported steel accounts for more than 30% of the total steel consumption in the United States, it means that the amount of steel resources controlled by dealers exceeds 50% (dealers can also obtain certain steel resources from American steel enterprises).

The increase in the proportion of imported steel has strengthened the price discourse power of American steel producers in the steel market, but weakened the price discourse power of American steel producers.

Steel dealers can purchase imported steel at low prices and sell it to steel users in a way lower than the direct selling price of American steel enterprises.

When the quantity and scale of steel traded at this price occupy a high market share, the direct selling price of American steel enterprises loses its competitiveness and demonstration-oriented role.

In this context, strengthening the steel direct sales management of American steel enterprises will not only help to improve customer service quality and stabilize market share, but also control the resources of distributors (steel service centers) and weaken their influence on steel prices.