This one is quite simple: World Steel production 1979: 700 mm metric tons 1989: 785 mm metric tons 1999: 784 mm metric tons 2007: 1,345 mm metric tons 2008: 1,329 mm metric tons 2011: ?you write it in? Pretty sure we don't need the amount of steel production we currently have, and it seems China is INCREASING production! What happens to US steel companies when China stops growing infrastructure cash giveaways? It doesn't even have to be a decline in demand, just a flattening of growth. Then you have a bunch of shiny new steel factories in Asia and a vacuum of places to ship all that new steel. Did anyone write in 700 mm tons into 2011 expected production? Yeah, that might be optimistic. With all the new shiny buildings we've built around the world since 2001, why would we need more than half of 1999 production? to say all this ramping of steel production doesn't make sense might just be the understatement of the century. Politicians the world over are committing some of the biggest economics 101 errors the world has ever seen, and we are going to be paying for it.
$41.84 (09/02/09)
