It can be inferred from the passage that United States specialty–steel mills generally differ from integrated steel p...

Irina on September 6 at 10:33PM

@Julie,

The passage tells us that "integrated producers have been unable to compete with mini mills and specialty steel mills because they have dispensed entirely ..with the blast-furnace operation" (lines 50-57) among other process modifications, meaning specialty steel mills do not operate blast furnaces (E). Minimills rather than specialty mills produce a limited range of products (choice D) in a restricted geographic area (choice A) (lines 23-26). Both minimills and specialty mills have avoided economic troubles (lines 17-20), hence (B) is incorrect. The passage compares integrated producers in the US and Japan, not specialty mills in the US and Japan (lines 39-46), hence (C) is also incorrect.

Let me know if you have any further questions.