To reverse the trend, the steelworks – the biggest private employer in Slovakia – decided to extend its business. It has since enjoyed success via innovation and new solutions. One result is expansion into a new sector: production of steel for the white and black electronic goods business.
“The transformation process brings us huge benefits in practice,” president of U.S. Steel Košice George Babcoke told the Hospodárske Noviny daily in April. “It enables us to control the expenses and commercially expand on regional markets.”
By transforming its product portfolio, the company wants to acquire new clients, and thus keep its edge over competitors.
“Our research faces an especially important and difficult path – in developing new qualities of steel for the automotive, packaging and electronics industries,” vice-president of U.S. Steel Košice for human resources, Martin Pitorák, told the company magazine, Oceľ Východu (Steel of the East).
The effort to enter new markets is behind the development of a new type of zinc-plated sheet-iron; the company plans to make a breakthrough with this novelty among global producers of white and black electronics.
The business could turn out to be very lucrative for the Slovak plant of U.S. Steel. It is entering a segment with growing sales, the head of the Association of European Producers of Household Appliances, Andrej Hrdlička, told Hospodárske Noviny.