Cold Steel is the gripping story of one of the world's biggest and most hard-fought industry takeovers, and epic corporate battle. In 2006, the two largest steel-producers went head to head in a bitter battle for total market domination. It's a story of considerable interest to Canadians because of the implications for Canadian steel. At the heart of the story is Lakshmi Mittal, a rags-to-riches billionaire, and Guy Dolle of Arcelor, an elitist Frenchman who was renowned for getting his own way at the top of a rough industry. Locally, for thousands of residents of steel-dependent Hamilton, Ontario, the takeover played out like terrifying soap opera when Dofasco Steel Works found itself in—not one—but two global steel battles. Dofasco had already been the object of a hostile takeover battle between giants Arcelor and ThyssenKrupp. Suddenly Mittal entered the picture. The epic battle was on. Fast-paced and electrifying, Cold Steel brings to life the cut and thrust of big business at war. Praise for Cold Steel : “A rare, insider's account of lots of people making millions... The book reads like a thriller, with each side trying to rope in other steel companies on both sides of the Atlantic as allies... As this book shows, money and business logic prevailed in the end over politics and protection.†-- The Economist “A compelling tale... too few page-turning books are written on the high drama and low cunning of business and finance. Cold Steel is a welcome addition.†-- Financial Times “Tim Bouquet was the first British journalist to write a major profile of Mittal, while Byron Ousey was a PR adviser to the Luxembourg government, one of Arcelor's biggest shareholders. Together they are admirably qualified to guide us through the myriad twists and turns of this compelling business saga and have produced an enormously entertaining read.†-- Daily Express “Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey have written an account of the takeover in the style of a thriller. Cold Steel describes the often brutal and chaotic five-month battle between Mittal and Arcelor. The combatants are described as though starring in a fictional work of industrial espionage.†-- Management Today “The authors recount these events in the form of a thriller with fanatic changes of scene from one boardroom or luxury hotel to another, as each side seeks to drum up support from investors. The result is a tumultuous narrative.†-- Sunday Telegraph

The History of Stainless Steel provides a fascinating glimpse into a vital material that we may take for granted today. Stainless steel, called "the miracle metal" and "the crowning achievement of metallurgy" by the prominent metallurgist Carl Zapffe, is a material marvel with an equally fascinating history of people, places, and technology. As stainless steel nears the hundredth anniversary of its discovery, The History of Stainless Steel by Harold Cobb is a fitting perspective on a vital material of our modern life. Aptly called the miracle metal by the renowned metallurgist Carl Zapffe, stainless steel is not only a metallurgical marvel, but its history provides an equally fascinating story of curiosity, competitive persistence, and entrepreneurial spirit. The History of Stainless Steel is the world's first book that captures the unfolding excitement and innovations of stainless steel pioneers and entrepreneurs. Many new insights are given into the work of famous pioneers like Harry Brearley, Elwood Haynes, and Benno Strauss, including significant technical contributions of lesser known figures like William Krivsky. This fascinating history of stainless steel exemplifies the great push of progress in the 20th Century. From the stainless steel cutlery of Brearley in 1913, stainless steel burst on the modern scene in many tangible ways. Excerpted text by William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building, describes the early architectural use of stainless steel. Another historic application of stainless steel is the revolution in rail travel by the Edward G. Budd Company, which built the first light-weight stainless steel passenger trains--with an astounding 90% reduction in fuel costs. This remains recognized today as one of the technological marvels of the modern world. Harold Cobb, a metallurgist who has spent much of his career in the stainless steel industry, uncovers many interesting stories and insights, including a special perspective on the prominent role of stainless steel in the activities of emerging technical societies such as the American Society for Metals and the American Society for Testing and Materials. Amply illustrated and with a 78-page timeline, this publication truly evokes the inspirations created by and from stainless steel.

Steel companies were at the birth of the modern business corporation. The first billion dollar corporation ever formed was U.S. Steel in 1901. By the mid-twentieth century the steel mill and the automobile plant were the two pillars upon which the twentieth century industrial economy rested. Given the scale of capital and operations, vertical integration was seen to be pivotal, from the raw materials of iron ore and coal on one end of the supply chain to the myriad of finished products on the other. By the end of the twentieth century, however, things had dramatically changed. Take a look inside for a brilliant and concise history of the steel industry. The author has put together a true presentation of the economics of the industry, with an overview of how the industry operates and the environment in which it operates. This book includes a detailed discussion of the regulation of the industry; a documentation of the reasons why a rejuvenated steel industry will be critical to the economic health of the United States and Canada; and a rationale for the reemergence of the steel industry in particular, and manufacturing in general, as a vital force in the North American economy of the new millennium. It was widely perceived that the United States was moving from an industrial age into an information age, driven by high technology. That process is now being reversed. The steel industry has continuously been forced to remake itself, and this book describes those developments and dynamics.

At its formation in 1901, the United States Steel Corporation was the earth's biggest industrial corporation, a wonder of the manufacturing world. Immediately it produced two thirds of America's raw steel and thirty percent of the steel made worldwide. The behemoth company would go on to support the manufacturing superstructure of practically every other industry in America. It would create and sustain the economies of many industrial communities, especially Pittsburgh, employing more than a million people over the course of the century. A hundred years later, the U.S. Steel Group of USX makes scarcely ten percent of the steel in the United States and just over one and a half percent of global output. Far from the biggest, the company is now considered the most efficient steel producer in the world. What happened between then and now, and why, is the subject of Big Steel, the first comprehensive history of the company at the center of America's twentieth-century industrial life.Granted privileged and unprecedented access to the U.S. Steel archives, Kenneth Warren has sifted through a long, complex business history to tell a compelling story. Its preeminent size was supposed to confer many advantages to U.S. Steel—economies of scale, monopolies of talent, etc. Yet in practice, many of those advantages proved illusory. Warren shows how, even in its early years, the company was out-maneuvered by smaller competitors and how, over the century, U.S. Steel's share of the industry, by every measure, steadily declined. Warren's subtle analysis of years of internal decision making reveals that the company's size and clumsy hierarchical structure made it uniquely difficult to direct and manage. He profiles the chairmen who grappled with this "lumbering giant," paying particular attention to those who long ago created its enduring corporate culture—Charles M. Schwab, Elbert H. Gary, and Myron C. Taylor.Warren points to the way U.S. Steel's dominating size exposed it to public scrutiny and government oversight—a cautionary force. He analyzes the ways that labor relations affected company management and strategy. And he demonstrates how U.S. Steel suffered gradually, steadily, from its paradoxical ability to make high profits while failing to keep pace with the best practices. Only after the drastic pruning late in the century—when U.S. Steel reduced its capacity by two-thirds—did the company become a world leader in steel-making efficiency, rather than merely in size. These lessons, drawn from the history of an extraordinary company, will enrich the scholarship of industry and inform the practice of business in the twenty-first century.

This volume, covering metals and minerals, contains chapters on approximately 90 commodities. In addition, this volume has chapters on mining and quarrying trends and on statistical surveying methods used by Minerals Information, plus a statistical summary.

teach aspects of the WTO system or advise clients in the private sector." "The essays are grouped into three sections: (1) looking at the ongoing Doha negotiations and/or describing changes to the WTO system or negotiation approach that are needed/viewed as desirable; (2) examining the direction US trade policy should take moving forward; and (3) critically examining the world food crisis and what role the trading system and individual WTO members can take in helping to resolve the crisis." --Book Jacket.