Look at China's steel mills 30 years ago. they were essentially back yard operations . Their biggest leap forward was buying a German disused Ruhr Valley steel smelter/Mill, demolishing it & shipping it to China ,refurb it and then knock out a million tons/year. Now it produced 60% of the world's steel!
As I ave proposed on another thread, our best solution to oveercome high labout inputs and red take is SEZs.
But I guess we have always been plagued by a lack of industrial self confidence as a hang over (with cricket) from our Colonial days.
What would you say if China proposed to design. build. own and operate 2 mega steel smelters in Aus? If the Chinese can do it then surely we can...eh?
If the US wants to stymie China's economic/industrial/trade emerging global domiance then it has to support us to process our own minerals (not own the feckin things) so that US Allies can industrialise and combat China on an economic front.
At present the only support we get from Uncle Sam is ownership of our resources and big businesses. That's not support; that's economic colonisation which is the very thing we suspect China of wanting to do.
