#27 - Concept Reference, Strengthen

[Dana D]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

The author says in lines (50-55) that minimills and specialty steel mills have been more successful than integrated producers because they got rid of the iron-smelting process. This process costs the most time and money on the front end of production, and it has limited integrated producers' competition capacity.

Answer choice (E) strengthens this claim by showing that when iron-smelting operations are separated from steel production, they have to receive a lot of financial assistance in order to be profitable, which would support the author's claim that the reason integrated producers aren't as successful is because they have been combining this non-profitable process into their production.

[dbrowning]

Hi, I had some trouble with this question. First, I chose answer B, because I interpreted the answer choice as suggesting that many of the integrated producers are equally as skilled as the specialty steel mills at making good products. In effect, I thought this answer did some work to eliminate another potential explanation for the integrated producer's economic troubles - lack of skill.

With respect to E, do we ever learn that the new technology makes it so that iron smelting is not independent of steel production? If not, this answer does not make any sense. I cannot identify where this relationship is stated, unless I just missed it.

Thanks for your help!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi dbrowning,

That's an interesting take on answer choice B (and one that didn't immediately occur to me), but here's the basic problem with it: since the author never discussed whether one of the advantages that minimills and specialty mills possess is skill, the author's argument does not treat skill as causally relevant. Thus, we cannot tell whether the author would consider a skill-based equality between manufacturers to be something that even could eliminate an alternate cause. And we have no other basis for inferring that skill is causally relevant. Answer choice B is therefore indeterminate in its effect on the author's explanation.

Here's my more high-level view of answer choice B: we're being asked in the question to strengthen an explanation for why one industry sector is doing poorer than two other sectors. Pointing up a success-based similarity among the three sectors is unlikely to do the job of strengthening an explanatory difference focused on poor performance. If anything, it introduces some doubt about whether there even is a performance gap that needs explaining.

What answer choice E is saying is that, in another circumstance where iron smelting is being used, what we find is economic inefficiency, i.e. the independent industry must be heavily subsidized and therefore is not profitable on its own. This makes the author's explanation that integrated producers have not dispensed with iron smelting (whereas minimills and specialty mills have, see lines 50-54) more plausible as a disadvantage. Integrated producers likely experience the same profit-sucking inefficiencies from iron smelting that independent iron smelters suffer, whereas minimills and specialty producers don't experience that inefficiency.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[bigboyroeroe123]

Hi Powerscore,

I struggled between A and E but finally chose A. And my basis for eliminating E is because I think the "independently of steel production" in E contradicts with the information in the last paragraph. According to the last paragraph, minimills "have dispensed with the iron-melting process", which implies integrated producers have not dispensed with the iron-melting process, is it in conflict with the "independently of" in E? Thanks!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi bigboy,

What you're reading as an inconsistency actually turns out to be a consistency between what the passage is saying and what answer choice E is saying. Why are the minimills successful? They don't have to do iron-smelting (they've dispensed with it). So they don't have the costs of iron smelting dragging them down. That assumes that iron-smelting is expensive and unprofitable. By the way, that's also why the integrated producers do poorly: they still have the iron-smelting operations as part of their process, dragging them down.

Answer choice E confirms that iron-smelting is an expensive, unprofitable segment of operations, because, when iron-smelting is something that happens as part of its own separate enterprise, government has to prop it up (give it subsidies). So what answer choice E is saying (iron-smelting needs subsidies from the government, because it's otherwise unprofitable) is consistent with the passage: minimills do better because they don't have the unprofitable iron-smelting process bringing them down.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[bigboyroeroe123]

Thank you for your explanation! Very clear! I paid too much attention on the word "independently" in answer choice (E), while the focus should be "carried out" (integrated producers still need the iron-smelting process while minimills doesn't have that). Whether the iron-melting process is carried out together with steel process or independently of doesn't matter.

[bonnie_a]

Wouldn't D also strengthen the author's explanation? The author says one of the reasons why minimills have been able to avoid the economic decline was because they focused on their local markets, as opposed to integrated steel producers. If integrated steel producers are trying to develop a worldwide market, wouldn't that add more burden to their already excessive costs?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Bonnie, we want to explain the current condition of the integrated steel producers. Answer choice (D) talks about something they are looking to do in the future, but doesn't explain the current conditions as they are right now. Additionally, the answer choice doesn't tell us what impact the change will have on their economic health. The producers are "attempting to develop" the international market, but they haven't done so yet. We don't know how that will work for them. Our passage tells us that selling locally reduces transportation costs, but it doesn't tell us that there isn't an offsetting benefit to selling to a wider audience.

Answer choice (E) on the other hand, if it were true, would strengthen the argument. It would show another link between iron smelting and lack of profitability.

Hope that helps!