nucor case :: essays research papers

Nucor Corporation is constantly faced with obstacles and competition to overcome. This brace-making company whose name was formally adoptive in 1972, has since been on a journey to join the ranks of the worlds leading steel companies. Although this is a highly profitable industry with a U.S. market of $94.9 billion, it is highly competitory and presents many bariers to entry. Three elements of competition in this particular industry include, 1.) Technology 2) Changes in cost and efficiencies and 3) globalizationAdvances in technology can dramatically deepen an industrys landscape, making it possible to produce products at move cost and opening up whole new industry frontiers. The management at Nucor believed they could use new technology to their advantage and make bolts as cheaply as foreign producers. The traditional integrated steel mills were outdated and unable compared to new electric minimills. Nucor embraced this new technology to produce steel. They became known for co nstructing state-of-the-art facilities at the lowest possible costs and for investing aggressively in whole shebang modernization and efficiency improvements. New technology enabled minimills to triple their output in the 1990s. The new technology of twin shell electric arc furnaces helped minimills increase production, lower costs, and take additional market shares. Nucors use of advanced, efficient technologies enabled it to stay afloat when other companies could not. This use of technology also enables Nucor to lower many of the costs of maintaining environmental standards. With technological improvements to the plants and the production process, steel companies can better compete with each other. Because there is no real differentiation between products in the steel industry, companies will have to rely on technological innovation to profit in this industry. As stated above, there is no real differentiation in products in this industry. Therefore steel companies have to be abl e to produce high quality products at low cost to compete. By improving production efficiencies and cost management, they will be a more profitable company. Nucor constantly spent money researching new ways to improve the production processes and keep up with the emerging markets. Nucor was known for constructing state-of-the-art facilities at the lowest cost and investing in plant modernizing and efficiency. At the Darlington plant the manger there developed a system where less time and less capital investment were required. This helped keep the fuel usage down and this was the only mill in the United States that was doing this.