The steel industry is an important industrial sector of the country and also the material basis for the development of the national economy and national defense construction. The level of the metallurgical industry is also a measure of a country’s industrialization. At present，the scale of assets and business scope of iron and steel manufacturers in different countries in the world are different，and it is difficult to evaluate the operating ability and development level of a steel enterprise only by the index of iron and steel production capacity. Based on the relevant theoretical framework of enterprise economics，combined with the industry characteristics of steel enterprises，this paper proposes an index system for the competitiveness evaluation of iron and steel enterprises，which includes 2 first-level indicators，5 second-level indicators and 11 third-level indicators，to evaluate and analyse the competitiveness of foreign iron and steel enterprises that are in the forefront of the world’s iron and steel rankings. We found that although production capacity and asset scale can reflect the assets and development capabilities of iron and steel enterprises，operational capabilities also play an important role in the evaluation system. At the same time，the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020 has also brought a certain impact on the steel industry around the world. The sudden drop in the demand of downstream enterprises has caused some enterprises to encounter difficulties in the operation of assets. However，after the recent restrictions on the epidemic have been gradually lifted，these steel enterprises with strong background are also gradually resuming business operations，and then aiming at more diversified development.