The mill-products sector faces steady but uneven demand, price volatility, raw-material constraints, trade pressure, and accelerating decarbonization mandates in 2026, increasing lead-time volatility, working-capital needs, and logistics complexity.
The fact sheet pairs six supply chain challenges — raw-material volatility, demand volatility, inventory and working-capital strain, logistics friction, siloed IT systems, and sustainability reporting — with the SAP response: Ariba for supplier collaboration, IBP for demand sensing and scenario simulation, SAP ERP Cloud for unified order-to-cash, SAP TM for freight management, and Environment and Health for emissions tracking.
It cites 25–35% inventory reduction with integrated planning, 190+ interfaces consolidated in a European steel migration, and half of surveyed executives redesigning networks for nearshoring, then lays out a six-step roadmap from master data to analytics, with a pilot target of 10–20% inventory reduction and a 5–10 point OTIF improvement.
The full fact sheet is available above as a PDF. See also the "Mill Products Industry Overview 2026: Executive Brief" and the complete "Mill Products Industry Overview 2026: Navigating Volatility, Decarbonization, and Digital Transformation" deck in the Resource Library.