The major stainless steel manufacturers' technical competition was increasingly fiercely in East Asia after the operation of PT. Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (ITSS) was added. Among them, the representative mill included Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (TISCO), POSCO, and Yusco from China, South Korea, and Taiwan, respectively.

Those enterprises gradually avoided competing with ITSS in general steel products, choosing to focus on high-level products.

Before that, TISCO positively developed chromium steel products and allowed itself to further entry into the field of duplex stainless steel, which was also the main product of POSCO. However, the two largest mills decided to extend their production lines to develop high-level steel products due to the appearance of ITSS.

The competition was getting more fierce and the technology became stronger, the quality of many products of TISCO and POSCO were even comparable to those of Japanese steel mills.