• 9 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Chinese steel is cheaper than Canadian steel… Canadian steel is being targeted by tariffs in America, we need to make sure that as many Canadian companies as possible are using Canadian steel

    This makes no logical sense. When Canadian steel are priced out of the US by tariffs, the supply available for domestic use goes up, which would normally cause the price to fall, already automatically reducing the price advantage of Chinese steel.

    Basically, this is a convoluted way to keep steel prices high, to the detriment of Canadian manufacturers that use steel.










  • The “cheap Chinese labor and lax laws” thing is not exactly the issue, at least not these days. The thing is that Chinese industry has spent decades working out how to refine these minerals, and they’re the only ones who are now able to do it at scale. So other countries that extract and process rare earths (which as noted aren’t actually that rare) often ship semi-processed ore to China for final processing.

    Sure, other countries can replicate these capabilities if they’re willing to put in the effort. It’s like China’s challenge with EUV lithography, but in reverse. It will take significant time. Also, building up a rare earths processing industry probably involves not just spending capital, but also major environmental risks while you’re doing your trials.