Finding the nerves of steel in Ethiopia

Work ethics in country of the 'high happiness index' does not weaken firm's resolve to succeed

Just as the one-eyed man is king in the kingdom of the blind, East Steel is a master of all it surveys in Ethiopia's steel industry. That is despite its minuscule output of 300,000 tons, which, if it were in China, would long since have put it out of business.

The company's reinforcing bars, known as rebar, are mainly for the local market, where about 70 percent of the products are imported.