Technology and its community in today's metals industries

AbstractThe original remit of this paper was a review of how capital investment in new rolling technology is reducing the variable costs of the metals industry. The whole industry is in the same economic boat at the moment, however, and few of us are going to be persuaded to spend a lot of money to recoup even more. Since we're in this boat, a more appropriate emphasis is to review the technology base we share, and what's being achieved through co-operation. In large part, this common base is not in manufacturing assets, but rather in organisations and in technical communities.