Metals industry must compete in an active materials market

It won’t be an easy task but the metals industry can fight back in the marketplace.

“Yes, but it’ll be tough,” George Jewett, of the Toronto consulting firm Jewett & Associates, told a luncheon meeting of the Toronto branch of the CIM.

The metals industry can no longer talk of a “metals market;” rather, the emphasis today should be on competing in a “materials market,” where plastics are finding increasing application.

The metals industry must focus its attention on the needs of the user of the material because more and more user costs and user needs will determine the choice of material, Mr Jewett said.

Technology is changing the way industrial materials are selected and applied, he said, using wheels as an example. Whereas metal wheels are manufactured using a number of processes, plastic wheels now entering the marketplace can be produced in a far simpler, and less expensive, fashion.

“Substitution is now a reality,” he said in reference to the competitive materials market.

He mentioned two exceptions. Gold, he said, is not being challenged, and the aluminum industry is actively seeking new markets with the result that demand for aluminium products is rising. “The aluminum industry does understand the marketplace,” he said.

Plastics, too, are revolutionary in the sense that new technology is breaking down the constraints of design imposed by conventional materials, with new products being lighter, higher in quality and less expensive. In particular, the packing and transportation sectors are benefiting from these new products.

Technological advances are happening so fast that “we can expect more changes in our industry and markets by (the year) 2000 than we have seen since 1900,” Mr Jewett said.

The metals industry must be aware of its customers’ needs in order to compete, and intensive research and development must not be neglected, he said.

Mr Jewett is a former assistant professor of mining engineering at Queen’s University, and for 10 years worked for Rio Tinto Canada. He was a senior civil servant in the Ontario government for 10 years, responsible for geological, taxation and mineral policy programs. His consulting firm specializes in strategic planning and market development studies.