On 20 October the Business Centre of the Faculty of Business organized an online meeting with a Technical Manager at steelmaking company “British Steel”  Frederic Monfort who gave a presentation with the topic of “Supply Chains of a Vertically Integrated Steelmaking Company”. This seminar was open for students, partners, and business representatives of the Kaunas University of Applied Sciences who have interests in logistics processes. We are happy to share some thoughts of our guest speeches.

Steel is used everywhere strong, durable material is needed; building structures, houses, heavy duty machinery, railways and even tires. Because the market is so broad, it’s very important to have access to good quality raw materials. Coal and iron are the main ingredients in making steel, and both are natural resources found across the world, therefore finding a supplier of good, quality materials are very important in this business.

Steel manufacturing prospered after the 2^nd industrial revolution, and British Steel Ltd. Is one of the leading steel manufacturers in Europe, producing around 3 million tones of quality steel products every year. Most of the raw materials are imported from all around the world, in order to make the highest quality steel products. Frederic also covered the whole complex process of making steel, how the raw materials are turned into steel.

Even though steel making starts from gathering raw materials, more important are the customer demands. British Steel value chain goes from raw materials to iron making to steel manufacturing, downstream processing, sales & marketing to customers, but without customers, it all wouldn’t matter, Says Frederic. Making a good annual plan is essential in the steel-making business.

The biggest challenges, based on the Frederic, that steel making industry is facing are fluctuating global demand, energy prices, steel prices, trade barriers and tariffs, also the market is very co-depended on the global economy.

Article prepared by Justas Blažys, student of English for Public Relations, 2nd course