21COE, University of Tokyo

MMRC Discussion Paper No. 73

MMRC-F-73

Competition and Co-operation in Automotive Steel
Sheet Production in East Asia
Fujimoto Takahiro, GE Dongsheng and OH Jewheon
Manufacturing Management Research Center, University of Tokyo

March 2006

21COE, University
University of
Discussion
Paper
No. 7321COE,
ofTokyoTokyo MMRC
MMRC
Discussion
Paper
No. 73Competition and Co-operation in Automotive Steel
Sheet Production in East Asia

Fujimoto Takahiro, GE Dongsheng and OH Jewheon
Manufacturing Management Research Center, University of Tokyo
March 2006

Abstract
The trade pattern of steel products, especially those for automotive applications in East
Asia intrigues us to explore the micro foundation of the so-called comparative advantagesof Korea, China and Japan. We propose that the fit of process architecture and theaccumulated organizational capability is one underlying force driving the specialization
across country borders. Bake hardenable steel sheet and surface-treated steel mainly for
automobile’s outer panels are two cases under scrutiny, while function-process matrix is
tentatively utilized to measure the architectural attributes of steel processing.

Keywords
Process architecture, function-process matrix, organizational capability, comparativeadvantage, automobile steel sheet, East Asia

Introduction
Among the examples of mutual growth achievement in East Asia, steel making industry bears no
more salient feature of competition and cooperation between firms of different nations. In the region
1

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

that is the most competitive manufacturing base of steel products in the world, China is continuing tobe the largest steel producer driven by the robust development of economy, while the Korean
representative maker Posco is boasting of the highest profitability and Japanese makers are taking thelead in the field of advanced technology (see Table 1, 2, 3 and Figure 1). Although competition
becomes much fiercer in securing iron ores supply and in the final product markets, most companies
are enjoying their record high level of profits as joint ventures and extensive technologicalpartnership enter an unprecedentedly active phase. In this paper, rather than addressing a macro
picture of steel industry, we focus our attention on the steel sheets for automotive use to examine thecomparative advantages of companies in three countries and to explore their micro foundation
through analyzing the features of manufacturing processes.
Table 1 Country’s Ranking of Crude Steel Production (Million tons)
Country

Output

1

China

286

26

2

EU15

159.8

16.6

3

Japan

121

11

4

US

99

9

5

Russia

66

6

44

4

6

South
Korea

Share

7

Germany

44.8

4.6

8

Ukraine

36.9

3.8

9

India

31.8

3.3

10

Brasil

31.1

3.2

2

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

Table 2. Company’s Ranking of Crude Steel Production (Million tons)
Company

OutputArcelor (LUX)

46.9

LNM Holdings (NED)

42.8

Nippon Steel (JAP)31.4

JFE Steel (JAP)

31.1

POSCO (KOR)

31.1

Shanghai BaoSteel (China) 21.4
US Steel (USA)20.8

Corus Group (U.K.)

19.9

Nucor (USA)17.9

ThyssenKrupp (GER)

17.6

Source: IISI Worldsteel, 2004.

Figure 1 Posco’s Profitability

Posco(Bil.Won)
25,00030

20,000

25

%

Sales
Operating Profit

20

15,00015
10,000Net Earnings

10

Operating Profit
Margin

5,000

5Net Profit Margin

002000 2001 20022003 2004

3

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

Table 3 Patent Application Concerning the Automotive Steel Sheet (Year 2000)
Application Content

Japan

Korea

US

Germany France

UK

Steel Making

513

34

73

21

30

29

Hot Rolled Steel

351

35

41

28

24

26

Cold Rolled Steel

752

51

98

62

58

50

Surface Treatment Steel 445

37

54

24

30

24

Stainless

84

12

17

10

10

9

Steel Bar

90

4

11

5

2

6

Steel Pipe

19

2

4

3

3

3

Electrical Steel

282

28

48

21

20

18

others

190

6

33

8

3

3

Total

2726

209

379

182

180

168

Source: Hanazawa Toshitake (2005). “The evolution of the automotive steel sheet’s manufacturing
and function”. JFE Corporation.

Since steel accounts for 70 percent of motor vehicle’s weight and is used for producing more than
100 categories of auto parts, it remains the dominant material for automobile and its consumption
trends are greatly impacted by auto industry. As the burgeoning auto market of China and theambitious global expansion of Korean and Japanese automakers increase the auto production up tonearly 20 million units in the East Asian region, approximately one-third of the world total, demands
for automotive steel products are surging as well. Meanwhile, the keen competition amongautomakers to improve fuel efficiency, safety and cost performance of vehicles also calls for the great
endeavor of steelmakers to meet the technical and economical requirements. It is under suchenvironment that steelmakers of Korea, China and Japan have established joint ventures and strategic
alliance to serve their customers. For example, POSCO and Nippon Steel, Hyundai HYSCO and JFE
4

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

entered into comprehensive alliance to produce automotive steel sheets in 2000; BaoSteel andNippon Steel, Guangzhou Steel and JFE established joint ventures in China in 2003 to manufacture
the products used for outer panels of auto. Trade figures also reflect that Japanese steel makers still
maintain the net exporter of the high value added products while China is the net importer of
automotive steel sheets in the region (see Figure 2). Nevertheless, when looking at the details of steel
sheet procurement of automakers, we can see that some Japanese automakers also imported fromPOSCO the products for producing body parts other than outer panels. So even when we go down the
category tree of steel products to the ramification of automotive steel sheets, there is still a richvariety according to the application areas of auto body which interestingly reflects the comparativecompetitiveness of companies in East Asia.
Figure 2 Trade Pattern of Steel Products among Korea, China and Japan (Million tons)

China
Zinc coat SteelZincsheet,

6,351

Cold-rolled,
Hot-rolled

’02년

2,737

Steel,

etc.

etc.

1,924
Japan

Korea
8,722
Zinc coat Steelsheet,
Cold-rolled,
Hot-rolled
Steel, etc.
5

Steel

sheet, Cold-rolled,
Hot-rolled

1,208

130

coat

Steel,

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

Practically, auto body parts are classified into four groups. (1) Exposed parts or outer panels suchas roof, front fender, side panel outer, door outer, hood outer, etc. ; (2) Unexposed parts or inner
panels such as floor, wheel house inner, door inner, dash panel, front pillar inner, center pillar inner,
etc. ; (3) Reinforcement parts or structural parts such as front and rear side members, front and rearcross members, bumper reinforcement, door impact beam, etc,; and (4) underbody parts such assuspension member, suspension arm and accelerator housing (see Figure 3). To implement their
specified functions optimally, parts in different area require the steel materials with different
properties and characteristics. For instance, outer panels require rigidity, dent and corrosion
resistance, inner panels also need fatigue and crash strength besides rigidity, and reinforcement parts
are expected to absorb crash energy to secure passenger’s safety. In addition, the overall vehicle’s
weight is required to be reduced to achieve better fuel efficiency while manufacturability likeformability, weldability and paintability has to be improved. The solutions provided by steelmakers
to meet these requirements are high strength steels, surface-treated panels and other innovative
high-end products. The high strength steel can make the sheets thinner without compromising on
safety standard and includes products such as bake hardenable (BH) steel, dual-phase (DP) steel, lowalloy transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel and ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) with a wide
range of strength from 340Mpa to over 1000Mpa to be applied to different areas.1 Surface-treatedsteel, mainly refers to galvannealed (GA) steel sheets and non-alloy hot-dip galvanized (GI) sheets,
1

Bake hardenable (BH) steel is being used for exposed parts, dual-phase (DP) steel and low alloy transformation induced

plasticity (TRIP) are desirable for crashworthy parts, ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) with the tensile strength of 980 MPa
or more is applied to bumper reinforcement and center pillars and high strength steel sheets are considered to be suitable forchassis.

6Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

can achieve excellent surface quality and formability by coating steel sheets with ZINC.
Figure 3 Variety of Steel Sheets for the Automotive Applications

Outer panels

Door outer, roof, front fender, side panel outer, etc.

Inner panels

Door inner, roof side inner, side sill inner, floor, wheel house inner, etc.

Structural parts
Underbody parts

Front/rear side member, front/rear cross member, sheet rail frame, bumper
reinforcement, door impact beam, etc.
Suspension member, suspension arm, disc wheel, etc.

Japanese steelmakers have been maintaining the competitive advantages in producing these kindsof high end specialty products for more than twenty years, while Posco is still in the catch-up stage
even though its net profit margin doubles that of the Japanese makers from making the relatively
general-purposed products such as hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets. How to explain such horizontal
specialization between companies of different nations? In the following, we will present a frameworkof process architecture that describing the manufacturing features in making steel products fordifferent automotive applications. The foundation of specialization is then proposed as the matchingof process architecture and the organizational capability accumulated by the companies. Two cases of7

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

steel sheets --- bake hardenable (BH) sheet and surface-treated sheet that are especially for outerpanels of automobile, are addressed in depth to illustrate our proposition.

2 Framework: Process Architecture and Organizational Capability
Process architecture is our newly coined concept to reflect the interdependence among different
phases of non-assembled product’s manufacturing, which is derived by analogy from the literatureson product architecture. Product architecture, one of the fundamental concepts in the field ofengineering design, has recently been spotlighted in management science. Defined as “the scheme bywhich the function of a product is allocated to physical components and by which the components
interact” (Ulrich, 1995, p.420), it provides a new perspective to examine the division of labor andcoordination pattern within and between firms, or between nations (Langlois and Robertson, 1992;
Baldwin and Clark, 2000; Fujimoto, Takeishi and Aoshima, 2001; Aoki and Ando, 2002). Reflecting
the general design process, three elements are included in product architecture. First, functional
requirements of the product to be designed are arranged in a structure (often in a hierarchical manner).
Second, the means of achieving these functional elements are exploited by designing the visible
physical building blocks. To put it in the former terminology, this is the process of mapping fromfunction structure to physical components (Ulrich, 1995). Third, interfaces among interacting
physical building blocks are specified (Ulrich and Eppinger, 1995). Modular and integral architecture
are two extreme categories to make more concrete image of the concept. While modular architecturefeatures in one-to-one function-component mapping and the de-coupled interface between
components, integral architecture has components that interact with each other to fulfill the required8Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asiafunctions.
Literatures on product architecture obviously focus on the assembled products with parts orbuilding blocks combined to make a whole system. However, products of process industries do nothave such decomposable feature and are generally made by using large amounts of heat and energy
to physically and chemically transform materials. Therefore, instead of mapping functional elements
to physical building blocks, product in process industries is the mapping from functional
requirements to a multi-phase processing flow in which materials, equipment (machines) andworking methods (man) coordinate to achieve the target processing parameters. In the same vein, theconcept of interface in the case of the non-assembled products mainly refers to the interactions ofparameters that are to be controlled between different phases. Process architecture, then, can be
defined as the scheme by which the function of a non-assembled product is allocated to theparameters to be controlled in a serious of processing phases and by which these parameters ofdifferent phases interact. Taxonomy of process architecture is possible as well. A typical modular
process architecture is the one in which the required function can be realized by a process flow witheach phase’s parameters independent. By contrast, under the integral process architecture, one
required function has to be achieved through adjusting parameters of different phases.
Process architecture can be further represented in hierarchical diagrams and in matrix. Since
process architecture focuses on the flow of transforming materials that is closed to a horizontal
direction, matrix is considered as a better way for depicting both the mapping relationship between
functional requirements and processing parameters, and the interactions among parameters ofdifferent processing phases (Fujimoto, 2003). Table 4 gives a conceptual representation of such9

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

matrix. The top horizontal column shows the required functions, while the vertical ones are stages ofa processing flow. The cells of such a function-processing matrix are to show the mapping
relationship between the required functions and processing stages. By simply aggregating thenumbers of cells indicating that the meaningful mappings exist, and then dividing it by the total
numbers of cells, we can get an index showing the integrity of processing coordination. It is called
integral architecture index here.
Table 4 Conceptual Matrix of Function-Processing flow’s Mapping
ProcessP1

Function

F1
○

P2
P3

F2

F3

…….

Fm

○
○

○

…….

○Xij*

Pn

○Xnm*
Integral Architecture Index = ∑Xij*/∑i=1~n∑j=1~m(Xij)The above formularization of process architecture can facilitate the analysis on the competence ofcompanies in process industries. Corresponding to the elements in process architecture, theorganizational capabilities of companies can be decomposed into several observable indicators suchas the capability of translating functional requirements into the chemical composition of materials,
the capability of translating functional requirements into the parameters for control, the capability ofallocating parameters to appropriate processing phase and the capability of managing the parametersacross the process. Process architecture is also a strategic variable for companies to choose. When the

10Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

architecture is different, the path by which companies accumulate their organizational capabilities islikely to vary. It is in this sense that we propose in this paper that different process architecture ofsteel sheets for different applications of auto-body is one of the important factor to determine thecomparative advantages of steelmakers in East Asia. In next section, after description of the generalprocess of steel making, cases of bake hardenable and surface-treated steel sheets are addressed toshow the relationship between process architecture and organizational capability.

3 Case Study: steels for outer panels of automobile
3.1 General process of steel making:The general process of steel making is consisted of a series of phases such as iron making, steel
making and hot rolling, and will go further to include cold rolling, annealing or hot dip zinc coating
to produce flat steel products like automotive sheets where advanced requirements are to be met. See
Figure 4 for the general steel making process.
During iron making process, raw materials (iron core, coal and limestone) are put into blast
furnace where hot air is pumped to melt them. Pig iron, the output of this processing, contains highcarbon contents that make the material too brittle and has to be refined.
The subsequent steel making phase consisting of converter, secondary refining and continuous
casting processes then is for further removal of carbons and other impurities. At first, scrap steel ischarged into the converter followed by liquid iron from the blast furnace. The oxygen blown in will
combine with carbon and other unwanted elements through oxidation reaction. The chemicalcomposition of materials for different applications is also adjusted here by adding alloys.

11

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

Figure 4 General Steel Processing Flow

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation’s website.

In the secondary refining, the molten steel is tapped from the converter to a vacuum degasser wherehydrogen, atmospheric and volatile impurities are further removed. It is of vital importance for highgrade steel making such as for automotive use where ultra-low level of carbon contents is required.
In the continuous casting process, molten steel is poured into a reservoir at the top of the casingmachine. Then it passes at a controlled rate into a water cooled mould where the outer shell of steel

12Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

becomes solidified. At the end of the machine, the solidified steel is straightened and cut to therequired length. Among these semi-finished products like slabs, blooms or billets, slabs are used forflat-rolled products.
In the following hot rolling mills, slabs are first reheated around 1400 degree. Then they go to aroughing stand to be formed in the shapes and dimensions closed to the requirements. After that, theslab passes continuously through a series of finishing stands which progressively squeeze the steel tomake it thinner and longer. Finally the long strip of steel is coiled and cooled. In the cooling process,the cooling speed will affect the mechanical properties of the steel and thus needs accurate control.
After hot rolling, further processing is conducted to reduce thickness and improve performance
characteristics of steel products for high end uses. In cold rolling, the steel stripe is first uncoiled andthen passes through a series of rolling mill stands that reduce its thickness to below1mm. Since coldrolling significantly increases material’s hardness, the strip is subsequently annealed (raising thetemperature and then slowly cooled) to improve ductility since a recrystallized structure is induced in
the steel. The introduction of the continuous annealing line (CAL) by Japanese steelmakers in 1970s
remarkably improves the productivity through continuous conduction of cleaning, annealing andadjustment rolling. Compared with the batch annealing, CAL reduces lead time from 3 days to 5-10
minutes.
Finally, there are various types of coating processes to achieve functions of corrosion resistanceand improved manufacturability for end users. In the case of zinc coating that is usually applied toautomotive sheets, several processing methods are available. One is to use electricity to make thezinc settle on the metal in the electrolysis bath. Such electrolytical galvanization uses cold rolled strip

13

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

after continuous annealing and its output is abbreviated as EG. Another way of zinc coating is tosubmerge (“hot dip” in formal terminology) the cold rolled strip without being annealed in a bath ofmolten zinc. As the steel emerges various means are used to level and control the thickness of thezinc coating. The product of such processing is called GI. When the steel is subjected to an additional
annealing step, the result is a completely alloyed iron-zinc coating which is called GA. Exhibiting
both high corrosion resisting attributes and cost performance, hot dip zinc coating, especially GA is
becoming the mainstream product for outer panels of automobile in Japan.
The above general process has been a dominant design in steel industry. Therefore, products fordifferent applications are manufactured through the design of chemical composites and processing
parameters to be controlled in each step. When functional and quality requirements from end users
such as automaker become multidimensional and rigorous, the increasing complexity in the processinevitably gives rise to interactions between upstream and downstream and calls for the integrative
capability of steelmakers. The following two cases are the examples to show the comparativeadvantages of Japanese makers in this respect.

3.2 Bake hardenable (BH) steel:The outer panels of automobile such as hoods, doors, deck lids and fenders require high resistanceto denting due to stone damages or palm printing in the final assembly, their complicated shapes also
require materials to have good formability for processing methods like deep drawing or stretching.
Such multiple functional requirements seem to pose a tradeoff problem: while dent resistance calls
for high yield strength, high surface quality against distortion in press forming needs the yield

14

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

strength below 240 MPa (Takahashi, 2003). Although dent resistance is a function of both yieldstrength and thickness, competence on vehicle’s weight reduction to improve fuel efficiency
eliminates the latter choice while turning to high strength materials for solution. Bake hardenable(BH) steel is considered ideal to satisfy all these requirements by exhibiting the features that itremains “soft” (low yield strength) prior to manufacturing but becomes “hard” (high yield strength)
after press stamping and paint baking operations. Invented by Japanese steel makers in early 1980s,
BH steel has been adopted by automakers worldwide.
The mechanism behind the characteristics of BH steel to meet conflicting requirements not
simultaneously but sequentially actually utilizes a phenomenon in metallurgy known as strain aging,which reflects the interactions between carbon atoms and dislocations in ferrous crystalline structure.
A dislocation is simply a defect in grid-like crystalline structure (lattice) in which some atoms are
missing in a layer. The structural instability of dislocation makes it easy to move when receiving
external forces. This movement does not affect the vast majority of atoms and does not require large
scale movement of the layers in the structure. It is this movement of dislocations that transform metalmaterial’s shapes. The easier the dislocations’ movements, the more malleable and ductile thematerial is. On the other hand, when dislocations in ferrous crystalline structure have difficulty inmoving, the steel material becomes stiff and hard. One Factor that hinders dislocation movements isthe accumulation of dislocations during transformation by external forces. When the number (ordensity) of dislocations increases, there is high possibility that they interact and entangle with eachother which locks the further movement of dislocations. Another factor is that carbon and/or nitrogenatoms tend to gather around dislocations and bury the missing places under the conditions like high15

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

temperature and duration of time, which will result in the stabilization of the crystal structure. The
strain aging phenomenon refers to such locking of dislocations. Therefore, the BH effect can beachieved by maintaining an appropriate level of carbon and/or nitrogen ingredients in steel that do
not stabilize the dislocations before stamping, but diffuse towards dislocations during baking in thepaint shop as dislocation’s density also increases after stamping formation as well. Too low level ofcarbon solute will decrease the BH effect and the excess amounts of it will make the steel sheet hard
under room temperature. This so-called room-temperature aging is likely to make steel sheets broken
during stamping.
In practice, about 0.001 percent (10 ppm) of solute carbon is maintained for producing BH steel
sheet. However, during the annealing process, even minute level of solute carbon tends to deteriorate
the formability for deep drawing. As one alternative to solve this trade-off problem, niobium (Nb) is
added to extract carbon in the compound form as niobium carbide (NbC) before annealing. The Nb/C
atomic ratio, then becomes another crucial parameter to control since it is closely related to annealing
temperature, bake-hardenability and formability of steel material.2 It has been shown that controllingthe atomic ratio about 1.0 and maintaining the annealing temperature above 850 degree can achieveboth high level of formability and bake-hardenability (Sato et al., 1991)3.
So the processing of BH steel begins with the ultra-low-carbon steel material with Nb/C ratioaround 1.0, then goes through hot rolling mill over 600 degree where carbon and nitrogen are
extracted in the compounds NbC and AIN. After cold rolling and heating above 750 degree, the steel
sheet will have a recrystallization texture with NbC and AIN stable around this temperature. But
2

The Nb/C atomic ratio has a positive relationship with annealing temperature. When annealing temperature holds constant,the lower the Nb/C ratio is, the lower the BH effect achieved.
3
The following description is based on the materials from JFE Corporation and the data is just for reference.

16

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

when the temperature continues to go up to higher than 850 degree, NbC will dissolve so that solutecarbon is acquired. Since the steel’s texture has been stable on such temperature level, solute carbon
will not make ill impact on it. In addition, AIN is also stable due to its higher resolution temperature
over 900 degree. Finally, to leave solute carbon in the product, the crucial step is the rapid cooling ofsteel stripe with the average speed around 40 degree per second. Cooling down slowly will makesolute carbon combine with niobium again.
Put in the terms of process architecture, the manufacturing of BH steel can be summarized asfollows. First, the means of satisfying conflicting functions of high dent resistance and good
formability are translated into the utilization of strain aging mechanism, and then are furthertranslated into the acquirement of a proper amount of solute carbon in the steel material. Second,
parameters to achieve the optimal amount of solute carbon are allocated to the phases of the wholeprocessing flow. The upstream vacuum degasser in secondary refining can realize carbon contents as
low as 10 ppm, but such direct method doesn’t satisfy the quality requirements of the downstream
annealing process. To solve this problem, additives such as niobium are added in the upstream to
combine with carbon atoms before annealing. The Nb/C atomic ratio has a positive relationship withannealing temperature. Furthermore, when annealing temperature holds constant, the lower the Nb/C
ratio is, the lower the BH effect achieved. On the basis of these principles that form a closed
cause-effect loop, the Nb/C ratio, temperature of hot rolling and annealing, and the speed of coolingin annealing process have to be controlled precisely. Therefore, the interactions among theseparameters across different phases of processing make us to say that the process architecture of BH
steel is an integral one.

17

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

Using function-process matrix, we can measure the architectural attributes of BH steel processing
as Table 5 shows. The judgments of the mapping relationships in this paper were conducted by one
engineer from a Japanese steel company who has long-year experience in designing automotive steel
sheets.
Table 5 Bake-hardenable (BH) Cold Rolled Steel Sheet for Automobile’s Outer Panel
Surface

Corrosion Dent

Function Appear- Resist-

Resistance

ence

Process

ence

Form-

Weld-

Paint-

abilityabilityability

Dimen
SionalRigidity

Accuracy

Iron Making
Converter

○

○

○

○

○

Secondary refining

○

○

○

○

○

Continuous casting○○

Hot Rolling○○

Pickling○

Cold Rolling

○

○

○

Continuous Annealing

○

○

○

○
○

○

○

The integral architectural index is 0.41 (=26÷(8X8) ), which can be viewed as relatively integral.
Although invented two decades ago and haven been introduced by many other makers so far, theBH steel production is still a competitive field of Japanese makers. Besides higher yield rates which
contribute to cost competence, Japanese makers especially have expertise in making the productswith less aging effect. Because carbon atoms remaining in a steel sheet tend to diffuse to dislocations
in ferrous crystal, the steel sheet will become hard (aging) even under room temperature when being
stored after a certain period of time. The know how of Japanese makers in integrating the processes
can prevent the materials from aging for three months, which is long enough for satisfying theoversea demands.
18○

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

3.3 Surface treated steel: the case of galvannealed product (GA)
Surface treatment, as introduced in the general process of steel making, is to coat zinc on bothsides of steel stripes after cold rolling process. Corrosion resistance is one of its main functions
because zinc can protect the base steel by providing a barrier to corrosion elements and also by thesacrificial nature of the coating4. The surface treated steels are especially suitable for outer panels of
automobile where not only corrosion resistance, but also aesthetic appearance are required. In Japan,
the hot dip galvanneal coating through which GA steel is produced has been a mainstream5. It is theprocess that after a steel strip exits the coating bath, an in-line heat treatment is conducted to convert
the molten zinc coating to a zinc-iron alloy as iron diffuse from the steel into the coating at hightemperature.
Because corrosion resistance is proportional to the coating thickness, the heavier coating on thesteel will result in better durability in corrosive atmospheric environment. The technology of justconducting heavy coating is not very difficult, what is demanding is that automakers require morefunctions such as formability, weldability and paintability for convenient application. With thezinc-iron alloy surface that is actually harder than the base steel, GA can improve spot weldability
because the coating’s high electrical resistance, along with higher hardness and higher melting point
allow good welds to be obtained at lower currents. Another primary attribute of GA is the improved

The corrosion rate of zinc is considerably below that of ferrous materials in the air, so zinc can provide abarrier between steel and external environment. The sacrificial nature of zinc coating lies in the fact that zinc
will preferentially corrode to protect steel against rusting when the coating is damaged.
4

5

That GA becomes the mainstream product in Japan does not mean it has the best material properties than GI
or EG. It is just a satisfactory solution subject to the manufacturing constraints (such as economic andenvironmental considerations) in Japan.
19

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

coating adhesion and ease of painting. The dull gray appearance of GA’s surface can accept paintreadily; furthermore, performance of GA under paint can be synergistically improved because of thegood compatibility between the alloy surface and the paint. The hardness of the alloy surface also
provides resistance to scratches during handling and other manufacturing damages. Nevertheless, thehard and relatively brittle alloy surface of GA will pose problems for good formability. When formed
into intricate shapes by deep drawing, the coat will come off the base steel as a result of compressive
strain. The frictional resistance between coating and die cause this powdering phenomenon. The
heavier the coating, the more powdering will exhibit. So the similar trade-off situation emerges again
as shown in the case of BH steel.
To strike a balance between coating adhesion and formability, optimal control of alloying reaction
is called for. Since the iron in the steel diffuse into zinc to make crystals of the alloy under hightemperature, the concentration of iron is high where close to the base steel and is low where near thecoat surface. Under the situation of insufficient heating, the concentration of iron is too low in thealloy which will result in great frictional resistance between coating and die (the flake phenomenon).
In contrast, excessive heating will cause the iron concentration too high and the coating so brittle thatthe powdering phenomenon occurs. By the way, if the hot dip zinc coating is continuously heated, it
will reach the steady state with 98% iron and 2% zinc. When making the proper alloy, the process
should be stopped far earlier than reaching the steady state. Therefore, the control of time andthermal conditions (heating temperature and speed) is crucial in arriving at an optimal proportion ofiron and zinc in the alloy coating.
Besides the heating conditions control, the alloying reaction also depends upon the chemical

20

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

composition of steel and the density of aluminum in the coat bath for controlling the reacting timingof iron and zinc. As the function of GA steel will differ significantly when such conditions change,
the parameters not only in the process of hot dip coating and reheating, but also in the upstream
phases of steel making and hot rolling where the material’s features are adjusted.
The more complicated case is to produce the galvannealed steel with bake hardenability. Beyond
the problem solving loop with interactive parameters for making the BH steel, additional functions
provided by GA further extend the processing flow and add new parameters for control. Since the BH
effect depends upon the amount of solute carbon in the steel, the efficient way to make BH-GA steel
is to maintain the acquired solute carbon from reacting with niobium and iron during the further
reheat treatment in the continuous galvannealing line. The precise thermal control is vital again inthis process. It has been shown that after rapid cooling from around 850 degree to 450 degree, thesteel stripe reheated to 400-600 degree for zinc-iron alloy formation will have little change in solutecarbon. Contrarily, the BH effect will deteriorate when the material is cooled down to 750 degree orto 300 degree (Sato, et al., 1991). In addition, to prevent ferrous atoms combine with dissolved
carbon, rapid cooling from 500 degree to 200 degree is once again essential after the alloying
reaction.
The process architecture of GA steel, therefore, is similar to that of BH product in that themulti-dimension functional requirements inevitably incur the trade-off constraints and an integrative
approach that coordinates the upstream and downstream of the process flow becomes essential.
Especially when GA is applied to outer panels of automobile, it is subject more to the sensual
evaluation of customers in the sense that attributes such as aesthetical appearance cannot be

21

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

definitely depicted in technology standard. This tacit nature of evaluation, together with the
integrative manufacturing know how, can be considered as the pivotal force to sustain thecompetitive advantage of Japanese steelmakers for more than two decades.
The architectural attribute of surface-treated steel sheet, as Table 6 shows, is also a relatively
integral one.
Table 6 Surface Treatment Steel for Automobile’s Outer Panel

Function

Surface

Appear- Resist-en Resistance

Process

Corrosion Dent

ce

ence

Form-

Weld

Paint

abilityabilityability

Dimensional

Rigidity

Accuracy

Iron Making
Converter

○

○

○

○

○

Secondary refining

○

○

○

○

○

Continuous casting○○

Hot Rolling○○

Pickling○

Cold Rolling

○

○

○

Continuous Annealing

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

Continuous
Galvannealing

○

○

○

○

The integral architectural index is about 0.48 (= 33 ÷(9X8)).

3.4 Discussion:
The bake hardenable and galvannealed steel products are two illustrative examples to show thefeatures of integral process architecture. We can see that multiple functional requirements from
customers (automakers) increase the complexity of the processing flow in that the parameters and22Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

their interactions to be controlled multiply. The enhanced complexity then calls for sophisticatedcapability of coordination and integration during steelmaking, where the know how such as thethermal control of fluid moving in high speed, the mechanical control of rolling and the stable quality
assurance during continuous twenty four hour operation has to be accumulated over a long period oftime. Embedded in the organizational context, a great amount of the know-how also bears the tacitfeature. Japanese steelmakers are successful in accumulating such organizational capabilities ofintegration through the practices of life long employment, on the job training and temporary job
rotation. Their competitive advantage in making high end products like BH and GA steel, as shownin our case study, indicates that the complicated causal linkages in the integral process architecture
and the tacit nature of production know how tend to create a great barrier to imitation and technology
transfer. It is also compatible with our proposition that the matching of organizational capability andprocess architecture will significantly influence the competitiveness of a firm.
This point can be further clarified by concisely examining the capability disparity of Posco.
Although Posco has been the most profitable steelmaker via mass producing the general purpose
products, it is still in the catch-up stage of manufacturing high end ones. More interesting is that theconstruction of Pohang plant during 1970s was under a turnkey contact with Japan Group (mainly
formed by Nippon Steel Corporation and NKK). Not only was the plant’s hardware the clone of themost advanced one of the Japanese makers, but also the Japanese style of management was
introduced. Similar is the second plant of Posco, Gwangyang that was also equipped with theultra-modern machinery from Japan and Europe and was laid out along the coast as most Japaneseplants do. Then the question arises that with the initial condition quite close to the Japanese way, how

23Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

Posco took a different path of development?
The reason lied in the nature of process architecture and the positioning strategy of Posco. Putting
equipment utilization as the primary target, the company chose to concentrate on producing general
purposed products to serve the demands from shipbuilding and construction industries. Because thefunctional requirements of these applications are not as complicated and strict as those for
automotive outer panels, the solutions can be acquired on the basis of routine principles. Moreover,quality improvement of the products can be achieved through the accuracy enhancement in certain
phase of processing without coordinating with other steps. That the introduction of vacuum degasser
can revolutionarily purify steel materials and reduce carbon contents to less than 20ppm level is one
example. The dimensional accuracy of products can be improved by upgrading rolling technology isanother. The advancement of digital control technology also facilitates this kind of capability
building. Put in our terminology, such quality improvement through pinpoint upgrading can beviewed as the feature of modular process architecture. As the results, Posco has achieved the mostefficient production and amazing cost competitiveness by selecting the necessary items to realize thescale economy. While it can produce the automotive sheets for certain application areas and forcertain segment of products where functional requirements are not so strict or the cost performance ismore emphasized, on the other hand, it has not accumulated the organizational capabilities
competitive enough in making the high end ones applied to the outer panels of the cars for export.
In order to make a comparison, we also have the architectural attributes of cold-rolled steel (which
is one of the main products of Posco for domestic and export uses) measured by our correspondent.
See Table7 for the architectural features of cold-rolled steel.

24

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

Table 7

Function

Process

Surface

Cold Rolled Steel for Inner Panels of Automobile

Corrosion Dent

Form-

Weld

Paint

abilityabilityability

○

○

○

○

○

○

Appear- Resistanceence

Resistence

Dimensional

Rigidity

Accuracy

Iron Making
Converter
Secondaryrefining
Continuous○

casting
Hot Rolling○

Pickling○

Cold Rolling○

Continuous○

Annealing

○

○

○

○

The integral architecture index of cold-rolled steel is 0.23 (=15/(8X8)), which can be viewed as
relatively modular.

In the case of Chinese steel industry, the path of capability building shares certain similarity withthat of Korean makers. More than seventy percent of its steel products are for low end construction
applications while automotive steel sheets depend severely upon import. The particular historic pathand institutional environment also make special problems confront China such as extreme low
concentration of the industry and the dispersed and irrational localization of companies.
Therefore, different positioning strategies of the companies in East Asia have lead to different

25

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

paths of capability accumulation that match different process architectures required by products. Thiskind of specialization has also constructed a micro foundation so far for inter-firm technologicalcollaboration and trade within the region.
As automobile market expands rapidly, both Korean and Chinese steelmakers have begun tostrengthen their competitiveness in the high end segment tailored for automotive applications. Posco
has listed the automotive steel as one of its big four strategic products. Bao steel corporation andNippon steel corporation, Guangzhou steel corporation and JFE have also established joint venturesin China to make surface treated steels for automobile outer panels, which has the epoch-making
meaning in that it is the first time for Japanese makers to provide the galvanized and galvannealed
technologies to oversea companies. The dynamic development paths of the companies may show aconvergent trend, but the effect of path dependence and the inherent logics of accumulating
integrating organizational capabilities are likely to maintain the differentiation points among thesteelmakers.

4 Conclusion:
After formularizing the concept of process architecture, we attempted to explain the horizontal
division of labor in steel manufacturing for auto body applications in East Asia within our framework.
The case study on specialty steel products of bake hardenable and surface treated steel sheets
illustrates that Japanese makers have accumulated their organizational capabilities matching therequirements of integral processing architecture. On the other hand, Posco and some Chinese makers
have focused on relatively general purpose products with more modular processing architecture as26

Competition and Cooperation in Automotive Steel sheet production in East Asia

the ultra-modern equipment introduced can upgrade the element technological capabilities within
relative short term. The differences in process architecture and the path of accumulatingorganizational capabilities therefore influence the different positioning of the companies in the Ease
Asian region.
The recent entry of Posco and Chinese makers into the high end segment indicates that thedevelopment path of companies may converge as the scope of products gradually overlaps.
Meanwhile, global procurement by automakers also exerts stronger competition pressures among
steelmakers. Nevertheless, the robust growth and the amazing variety in the demands for automotive
applications can still provide the space for inter-firm cooperation and for differentiate positioning. As
long as companies specialize in the sector with comparative advantage, mutual growth andimprovement can be achieved. When we were examining the limited subject of automotive steel
sheet from the perspective of process architecture, the bright and beautiful picture drawn by David
Ricardo almost 200 years ago emerged in our minds again.

27

Fujimoto, Ge and Oh

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