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I find it astonishing how much iron ore is shipped from Western Aus to China, it would be far more ecologically sounds to smelt it there, same is true with most

I find it astonishing how much iron ore is shipped from Western Aus to China, it would be far more ecologically sounds to smelt it there, same is true with most of the things dug out of the ground. I suppose in the scheme of things this is the thin end of the wedge but shipping unrefined iron ore at a 30% weight premium is desirable so that China has a steel industry without depleting their own reserves of Iron ore.

winter_blue 8y ago
It's probably down to the labor cost of smelting. Unskilled labor is prohibitively expensive in Australia compared to China. If they manage to fully automate smelting, end to end, I don't see why the smelting wouldn't be done locally in Australia.
- vbezhenar 8y ago
  You have an assumption that automatics is always cheaper than human labor. This is not obvious to me. You can have humans working 8 hour/day for as cheap as $100/month in some poor regions. And automatics still require R&D, service, electricity.
- jcampbell1 8y ago
  I don't think Australia has much metallurgical coal. Steel making is dirty, though Australia has plenty of places to make steel where it wouldn't cause a serious local air quality problem.
  - dredmorbius 8y ago
    Australia does have a lot of coal, also exported. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia Metallurgical coal tends to be biuminous, which AU has much of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_coal Also: http://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/181012%20Commodity%20Insights%20Met%20Coal%20Report.pdf http://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/181012%20Commodit...
  - andy_ppp 8y ago
    They export the coal and the iron ore which I thought was super weird, different sides of the country but still...
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- throwaway2048 8y ago
  China also massively subsidizes its steel industry, and produces it below cost.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

winter_blue 8y ago

It's probably down to the labor cost of smelting. Unskilled labor is prohibitively expensive in Australia compared to China. If they manage to fully automate smelting, end to end, I don't see why the smelting wouldn't be done locally in Australia.

vbezhenar 8y ago
You have an assumption that automatics is always cheaper than human labor. This is not obvious to me. You can have humans working 8 hour/day for as cheap as $100/month in some poor regions. And automatics still require R&D, service, electricity.
jcampbell1 8y ago
I don't think Australia has much metallurgical coal. Steel making is dirty, though Australia has plenty of places to make steel where it wouldn't cause a serious local air quality problem.
- dredmorbius 8y ago
  Australia does have a lot of coal, also exported. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia Metallurgical coal tends to be biuminous, which AU has much of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgical_coal Also: http://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/181012%20Commodity%20Insights%20Met%20Coal%20Report.pdf http://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/181012%20Commodit...
- andy_ppp 8y ago
  They export the coal and the iron ore which I thought was super weird, different sides of the country but still...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
throwaway2048 8y ago
China also massively subsidizes its steel industry, and produces it below cost.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]