You don't get it do you? The USA uses a high proportion of scrap in their steel making, but they also export scrap, the scrap they currently export competes against Iron Ore in Asia, however as the USA increases their steel production they consume more of their scrap, meaning they have less to export, in fact Steel dynamics recently purchased a Mexican scrap recycler to help secure their supply.
If there is less scrap making its way to china, Japan and Korea etc, these countries will be forced to use more Ore, which is increases demand for our ore.
Yes, Brazil is closer to the USA, so Ore from Brazil will be used in the USA, but again the more Ore that is diverted to USA from Brazil, the less Brazilian ore will make it to Asia to compete against us.
Same story with Europe, when the USA imports pig Iron from Turkey and Russia, there will be less pig Iron for china, so again virgin ore will be required.
The moral of the story is that it is all connected, Iron units used in the USA affect other markets, the markets for scrap, pig iron and ore are interconnected, and are global, they can't diverge from one another to greatly without arbitrage happening between the various markets.
FMG Price at posting:
$14.27 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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