Lets say that Australia exports 1 billion tons of raw Iron Ore mostly to China and a quarter of a billion tons of Met Coals, again mostly to China & Aus sets up two mega steel smelters , one say in Port Hedland & one say in Gladstone which combined make 40 million tons of Steel P/A exclusively for export so that it does not impact on the status quo.(Bluescope strives to turn our 3 million tons with Heinz varieties denying it an aconomy of scale in any steel market segment.
This will use, say , 80 million tons of our local Iron Ore & 50 million tons of met coals and after rolling/manufacturing, tripple* its export value At present 80 million tons of Iron ore and 50 million tons of met Coals has an export value of about $19.5 Billion AUD. Therefore 3 times that is $58.5 billion or a lift in exports by $39 billion and that's exporting crude steel. If we manufacture into say rolled/treated steel suitable for the Auto industry or other higher valued industrial applications than we can add 5 times the base materials export value which in this case would add $78 billion to our balance of trade and all without mining an extra ton!
The global Steel production for 2019 was 1.7 billion tons so a modest Aussie contribution of say 40 million tons is only 2% odd.
Now if we look at the effect such a strategy would have on China? China will need an increasing amount of steel making raw materials to continue its domestic economic growth & its BRI project and by taking 80 million tons of Iron Ore & say 50 Million tons of met Coals out of the global seabourne market would likely lift prices in say the next decade by 50% on today's prices, again a big lift to our trade surplus and a lift for our local miners (although mostly foreign owned)
This is not rocket science. Governments globally since WW2 have implemented variations on SEZs to kick start industrial development and my proposal is simply picking the eyes out of the best of these.
I keenly realise that we're 180 years behind mother England, 140 years behind the USA, 100 years behind Japan & Germany, 50 years behind Korea and 30 years behind China when it comes to industrialisation but hello, its better late than never.
We simply have to lift ourselves out of an inherited Colonial mire of negativity and get out there and do it rather than having cheap political shots at those who have! If we can do it in global sport then surely we can do it in manufacturing particuluarly when Mother Nature has given us a jump start!
During War 2, BHP supported by the Government essentially ran our industrial program underpinned by Newcastle & Woolongong Steel Smelters but the Japs put an end to that via high-tech production and economy of scale leaving BHP to retreat into mining and energy extraction.
I'm simply appalled that posters on these threads dont see or appreciate the logic of Aussie industrialisation which is key to Aussie economic independance.
