Tendencies of innovation development of the Russian iron and steel industry on the base of patent analytics for the largest national metallurgical companies

Iron and steel industry is one of the industrial branches making substantial input in provision of economic growth in Russian Federation; in this connection, innovation development of the metallurgical industry is rather important. The patent researches, in their turn, allow to get statistical data about the patents that are indicators of technological development and reliable parameter of innovation activity in the industry. The paper is devoted to study of the tendencies of innovation development of the national vertically integrated mining and metallurgical companies in order to reveal technological and innovation leaders and trends in this industry. The paper uses the patent method of technological prediction based on patent researches. The results of analysis of patent documents for the large metallurgical companies (Severstal, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works (NLMK), Metalloinvest Management Company, EVRAZ Group, Mechel) are presented. The rating of Russian patentee companies — leaders in iron and steel industry — is prepared for the period 2000-2020. The legal status of patent documents included in the patent portfolios of the companies is determined. Patent activity of the companies is analyzed during the examined period with differentiation by years. The patent documents registered in Russia during 20 years, as well as the documents of Nippon Steel and JFE Holdings are also analyzed for comparison. The collection for each patentee was obtained and their interest areas (corresponding to the definite classes of International Patent Classification (IPC)) were examined with revealing of the most important IPC subgroups. Activity of authors of the examined companies is investigated in order to find out the leading technological development specialists.