Analysis of Iran Steel Industry Technology Gap with Selected Countries

Technology development has been recognized as a major factor in the long-term national boom. In this regard, it is necessary to stimulate innovation in order to maintain a position in global competition. The necessity of designing and evaluating any innovation policy requires looking for ways to measure and compare the technological capability of different countries. This paper investigates and estimates the technology gap in Iran's steel industry with 13 selected countries to assess the technological capability of the world's top steel producers. The purpose of the present study is to identify the extent of technology gap, its causes, and provide solutions to overcome this technology gap. For this purpose, based on econometric method, two categories of inputs (raw materials, energy consumption and manpower) and outputs (total steel production) in the period 2009-2014 were collected through different databases, and then the data were analyzed through Frontier41 and GAMS soft wares. Results based on estimating the technological frontiers of each group of countries and comparing them with existing technology meta-frontier indicate that Iran has the largest technology gap in the steel industry compared to the selected countries,so based on literature review, some solutions has been provided at the end of the paper.