Whilst IO is abundant, mining it in commercially viable...

Whilst IO is abundant, mining it in commercially viable quantities is not, neither is grade.
Piggy would have you believe that China the largest consumer of IO is self sufficient.
It's Ore is poor quality and it is very expensive to mine relative to the big four Aust IO miners and Vale in Brazil.

It's a scale and quality game and we have this in abundance. Furthermore we are also very close to China so shipping costs are lower and speed to market faster.
We are a partner of choice historically for a reason.

Sure China, Japan and South Korea import it in significant amounts now as they are all industrial powerhouses, but history tells me that things change.

The last 20 yrs belonged to the Chinese, before that the Japanese in an industrial sense, but the Indians who have a population likely greater than the 1.4b Chinese anyway, and an average age of 29 (vs 38.4 in China ) are rapidly developing.

Already the Indian steel industry has been successful in blocking or limiting IO exports out of India. It was for a very brief period a notable exporter of IO, although since the Indian Steel industry with its strong political connections has cracked the whip little ore leaves the country.

India has the ambitions and money to become the next major global supply chain. It won't be more than a few years before it is also a significant importer of IO. TATA motors is a very significant and growing global player in the automotive industry and owns the Jaguar brand for example. It has a desire to rival the VW, Toyotas and Fords of the world.

The new cities of India will likely be characterised like other similar super cities throughout the world, with giant sky scrapers and thousands of them. How else are they going to house it's bourgeoning middle class?
How much new infrastructure will India build to make its economy more efficient and sustainable. India is the country most likely to build China rivaling megastructures and infrastructures.