Assessing the structure of Central and East European steel industry ownership today, it is perhaps fair to say that not only does the current structure largely exclude third parties with technical and distribution capability, but also that the ownership structure is still extremely nationalistic. Banks tend to be domestic banks. Distributors tend to be national distributors. Suppliers tend to be local or national providers of energy or raw materials. Other common owners are local authorities.
More speculative investors tend to be national rather than international investment funds.
The nature of the industry's ownership is thus still too highly insider-oriented, which is likely to contribute to restructuring too often being insufficiently deep. So, there remain still key impediments to the restruturing of the CEE steel industry. The biggest problem, it seems, is the lack of drive. However, with more attention perhaps to corporate governance issues at the government level and resolution of the problems of the fragmentation and nature of ownership at the shareholder level, it is certain that the drive can be restored. Only then will further substantial progress be made with privatisation and with the deeper restructuring of the industry, with far more passengers on board.