Benchmarking research of steel companies in Europe

In present time steelworks are at a stage of permanent changes that are marked with still stronger competition pressure. Therefore managers must solve questions of how to decrease production costs, how to overcome competition and how to survive in the world market. Still more attention should be paid to the modern managerial methods of market research and comparison with competition. Benchmarking research is one of the effective tools for such research. The goal of this contribution is to compare chosen steelworks and to indicate new directions for their development with the possibility of increasing the productivity of steel production