Climate change is a separate issue and not very relevant to this thread heading only to the extent that if we were to make the steel to replace some of China's , Japan's & Korea's capacity , we could then look at reducing CO2 emissions in our processes and thereby contributing significantly to climate change.
At present we simply have no influence on CO2 emissions from global steel production other than making Bluescope Steel more environmentally friendly which at present is a miniscule %age of world production.
By processing our alumina into aluminium , casting it and delivering it directly in the form of automotive machined castings directly to global car manufacturers would significantly reduce aluminium's CO2 footprint, IMO. Instead we quench the alumina ( liquid electricity) into ingots, export them to China , Japan & Korea to be re-smelted usinng nearly double the energy that otherwise could be used by doing the job at the Aussie refinery.
I guess if you are not confident enough to back yourself then you wont. But keep in mind that Japan, Korea & China are confident enough to back themselves even though they have to import the vast majority of their raw materials. It simply requires intelligence and a Government that leads the market; not follows it!
Ah she'll be right mate, let the wogs do it ..eh?.....we'll stick with our sport and drink "our" beer which is foreign owned!
