I recently heard about the China purchases of steel so I did a little
surfing and found a recent (Newsweek, I think it was) article on the
subject. The article did acknowledge the facts listed below, but, in
addition, it said that the main reason that the China purchases are a
problem for us is that our (US) method of making steel has changed. It
said that we used to use mostly open hearth furnaces which can use iron
ore, but now we use mostly electric furnaces, that require scrap steel,
instead.
That's not a solution, though. I'd guess it means that costs will
stay higher, but maybe it'll mean that some companies will restart open
hearth steel manufacturing?? How else can the US and world market
for steel products grow?

Pete Stanaitis
---------------

Brent wrote:

I work in the steel industry. the company I work for is one of the largest
companies of scrap metal recycling, mills, and rebar fabricators in the
country and the world. China is buying approximately 25% of all US scrap
steel and they are also producing about 25% of the worlds steel and they
aren't exporting very much. That drove the prices of steel in the USA sky
high. this time last year, we were fabricating rebar for as little as 16
cents a pound. Right now, we are at about 40 cents a pound minimum. We don't
have a shortage. there is more than enough steel in America. But, people
don't like paying the price of steel right now.
and it isn't just domestic steel that costs so much right now. The price is
high for imported steel as well.
Granted I haven't been keeping up with the politics as much as some of the
salesmen in my company, but I do know that China is affecting the worlds
steel economy.

Brent

"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
s.com...

Gary Coffman wrote:

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 22:04:35 GMT, Jim Stewart

wrote:

Walt wrote:


I was talking to a couple today that own a scrap business. They deal in
paper, plastic and steel. We got on the subject of scrap steel and the

high

prices we are seeing today. We also talked about China buying alot of

scrap

steel. They said that because the US doesn't make as much steel for

products

as we used to (using more plastics instead) that if a need for a large
quantity of steel were needed (in case of a major war)

The next major war won't require a large quantity of steel.


Well, it may, but it had better already be fabricated into weapons
before the war starts. The pace of modern high intensity combat
is so rapid that there's no time to tool up and produce weapons
after the fighting starts.

That was my point. I just tend to be a little less verbose
than you


It is highly unlikely that we'll ever have another major war like WWII
where we can start the fight unprepared then tool up and produce
enough weapons during the combat phase to affect the outcome.

The next war will need tungsten carbide, DU, titanium,
aluminum alloys, lead and brass. Lots of brass. I'd
guess we have plenty of scrap steel "in the bank" in
terms of mothballed ships, wrecked cars, and scrap rail
that can meet the need.