New world shortage alert. No surprise, China is grabbing as much steel as they can get their hands on. This is causing a shortage of a special coal used to make steel. Most of it comes from Australia. There is projected to be a 65% increase in iron-ore prices this year. Some exporters like India and South America are holding back some exports because transportation costs are high and the market is stronger at home.
Guess who has become a significant importer of steel? Us, of course, it’s a dirty industry and we don’t do dirty. We buy dirty and let others clean up the dirt. Or send it into the atmosphere as another export to us. So anything you buy that has any steel in it will cost you more. Not just for the steel, but of course the energy to fabricate it and the shipping costs.
Little drips in the pond, drip, drip, drip. No overflow yet, but stand by the boulders are coming. The pond will overflow and the mess will take time and money to fix. My greatest fear is the pond runoff may drown too many and the will to fix it will be gone.
In the new post green stone age there will be a different pecking order. It won’t be the rich, the bright, the urbane the creative, and hard working, and the lucky sperm clubber, it will be the mean, the aggressive, the immoral, the rural and the crude. They who can make it and take it in a tough world. God Bless the Redneck.
