DEVELOPMENT OF SMART STEEL INDUSTRY: WORLD EXPERIENCE AND LESSONS FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

The key directions of development of Ukraine’s steel industry on the smart basis are determined taking into account the world experience of steel smart production formation. The prerequisites and problems of the smart steel industry development in Ukraine are considered. It is determined that the process of working out and implementation of smart technologies in the industry is at the initial stage, despite its strategic nature for the national economy. The reasons are the general backlog of Ukraine and domestic steel industry in terms of innovation activity, significant volume of metal overproduction and critically low levels of domestic consumption of steel products, and the imperfection of regulatory framework of the industry activity. The features and consequences of smart solutions and technologies implementation in the steel industry of foreign countries are generalized. The main directions of emerging technologies use in the production, organizational, economic and social areas of steel enterprises are researched. It is revealed that, in comparison with the world analogs, only a part of smart technologies widely known in leading metal-producing countries are used in Ukraine’s steel industry. However, the main trends of the industry’s smartization are mostly similar, and they are in the digitalization of products and services, strengthening of customer focus of the business model, optimization of equipment operation and improvement of conditions and safety of work in real time. It is determined that the “bottleneck” of smart technologies implementation is the manufacturing sector due to the need for large investments to implement a fundamentally new innovative discoveries for improving the metallurgical process. The restraining factor is the social sphere because of the employees’ unwillingness to perceive a new digital culture and changes in the labor market.