Competing with China

Originally Posted by shendog

What I've been told is that it isnt worth it for China to send back the containers, so they leave them here. I know I can buy hundreds (maybe thousands?) of those containers all around town. It's amazing how it can be more affordable to send them raw materials, then ship back finished goods cheaper than we make here. Hopefully we'll eventually get a government that can figure things out and change it around.

Example of a container ship:

Emma Maersk - Super container ship arrives from China

15,000 containers (seems like alot doesn't it) on one ship, crew of 13. I'm sure ships probably don't bring back all the containers they drop off, but they do need ballast so they do load up on some. There was a show on TV about somebody building a super efficient house out of cut up containers and a space age spray on insulation.

The Chinese steel industry is government funded and controlled, without that there is no profit. Chine dumped tons of money into steel mills over the last decade it didn't need, and without government funding none of them would have been profitable.



China May Revive Tax Rebates to Help Ailing Steel Sector - Asia Business News - CNBC

"Profits at China's steel mills plunged 96 percent in the first half from a year earlier as financing costs soared, according to the CISA, a worrying combination that is threatening a sector that racked up 2.55 trillion yuan ($399.72 billion) of liabilities as of the end of 2011".

So we here in the US are giving money away (FED giving it to the largest banks for pretty much free) while in China a small interest rate hike killed all profit from the whole steel sector (meaning they were never making any money anyway)? $400 Billion in liabilities wonder what that was spent on (besides new steel plants that are pretty much idle).