1. Integrated steel works have been around for decades when the first mini-mills appeared. The integrated plants had undergone continuous improvement and were close to the limits of their potential performance. All this was insufficient to protect them from the onslaught of the mini-mills: their fundamental economic advantages (in terms of raw materials and energy) were simply too powerful. They represented a different (and dramatically superior) way of making basic steels. Optimization is necessary—but it cannot hold back innovation.
Integrated Steel Works, Management of Technological Innovation, KV Patri