And Chinese steel mills have been forced to make purchases on the spot market.

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Some have hinged steel plates that are forced apart by combustion pressures.

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Steel makers have been forced to take steps to protect themselves against painful raw material cost increases mainly due to surging demand from Asia's tiger economies, including China, to power their growth.

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The transparency in pricing forced by the euro is already pushing steel prices down.

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Xie Qihua, the president of Baosteel, saw her company's profitability drastically reduced in the mid-1990s when the government forced her to absorb four rival loss-making steel producers.

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The quotas raised steel prices by almost 30% in the United States, which forced the U.S. container industry to close factories and cut jobs.

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All this forced Krupp first into talks with Thyssen about an agreed merger of the two companies' core steel businesses, and then into abandoning the hostile bid altogether, leaving a steel joint venture as the only option.

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