3 ms·

Steel in china is produced by SOEs, by definition an SOE is not capitalistic it is communist. If a communist entity wants to export subsidized steel at or below

by marme 10y ago

Steel in china is produced by SOEs, by definition an SOE is not capitalistic it is communist. If a communist entity wants to export subsidized steel at or below cost why should the US stop them? buy all their steel and then laugh when you sell back luxury cars to them made from that cheap steel they gave you. Germany seems do be doing this well buying cheap cheap household goods and commodities and selling back high end goods the chinese can not reliably produce

toomuchtodo 10y ago
Because you've then lost your local steel industry, put out of business by those dumping. Steel could be considered a strategic commodity, unless you want to be beholden to China for your future steel needs. EDIT: You might be okay overpaying for steel for buildings, but would you be satisfied if China said you couldn't have steel for warships? Because they're entitled to not sell you a product if they don't want to. When we needed titanium for the SR-71, we had to purchase it from Russia through shell corporations: http://www.mining.com/bbc-future-sr-71-blackbird-the-cold-wars-ultimate-spy-plane-11725/ http://www.mining.com/bbc-future-sr-71-blackbird-the-cold-wa...
carsongross 10y ago
Well, here's one reason: http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-corroded-steel/ http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-c...
mrcsparker 10y ago
Depends on the steel grade. I can't find any articles on this, but I only started looking. Back when Japan and Russia were doing this in the 90s it was vanilla hot rolled coils, which is the bread and butter of the steel industry. Russian steel was almost German-steel quality and sold for less than US steel, while the Japanese steel was high quality and sold for slightly more than US steel but made up for it in its amazing quality. Both Russia and Japan were accused of dumping (which they were). Also, the quality is important. Back when my family was in the steel industry Chinese steel was pretty bad and also very cheap: even with a drastically reduced price, it didn't sell. Their process must have vastly improved. Notes: Japan eventually also started dropping its prices below US steel prices. If you want to see if the Chinese product is as good as the US product look at the sizes of the coils: are they uniform? How is the plate cut? How is it packaged? Is the product able to stay wrapped in whatever banding they use? These are always pretty good indicators of the quality of the underlying product. Shitty product tends to fall apart a bit during shipping.

by marme 10y ago

toomuchtodo 10y ago

Because you've then lost your local steel industry, put out of business by those dumping. Steel could be considered a strategic commodity, unless you want to be beholden to China for your future steel needs. EDIT: You might be okay overpaying for steel for buildings, but would you be satisfied if China said you couldn't have steel for warships? Because they're entitled to not sell you a product if they don't want to. When we needed titanium for the SR-71, we had to purchase it from Russia through shell corporations: http://www.mining.com/bbc-future-sr-71-blackbird-the-cold-wars-ultimate-spy-plane-11725/ http://www.mining.com/bbc-future-sr-71-blackbird-the-cold-wa...

carsongross 10y ago

Well, here's one reason: http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-corroded-steel/ http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mystery-brand-new-bay-bridges-c...

mrcsparker 10y ago

Depends on the steel grade. I can't find any articles on this, but I only started looking. Back when Japan and Russia were doing this in the 90s it was vanilla hot rolled coils, which is the bread and butter of the steel industry. Russian steel was almost German-steel quality and sold for less than US steel, while the Japanese steel was high quality and sold for slightly more than US steel but made up for it in its amazing quality. Both Russia and Japan were accused of dumping (which they were). Also, the quality is important. Back when my family was in the steel industry Chinese steel was pretty bad and also very cheap: even with a drastically reduced price, it didn't sell. Their process must have vastly improved. Notes: Japan eventually also started dropping its prices below US steel prices. If you want to see if the Chinese product is as good as the US product look at the sizes of the coils: are they uniform? How is the plate cut? How is it packaged? Is the product able to stay wrapped in whatever banding they use? These are always pretty good indicators of the quality of the underlying product. Shitty product tends to fall apart a bit during shipping.