Hi Neocon; Re China. Well over 1/3 of the world's production of cement is going into making China into the next industrial giant. They produce over 6x as much as the next largest producer, India:
minerals.usgs.gov
We've gotten used to thinking of China as a poor, unindustrialized nation. That thinking has to go. They are going to be the next superpower. Here's their current production of various materials:
They're also tops by wide margins in pig iron and steel:
minerals.usgs.gov
Getting onto the subject of the metals used in making high end steels, China produces 5/6 of the world supply of tungsten:
minerals.usgs.gov
They're by far the world's largest producer of vanadium:
minerals.usgs.gov
And make almost as much "Molly be damned" as the US:
minerals.usgs.gov
But they don't have any good sources of chromium, nickel, titanium or niobium:
minerals.usgs.gov
minerals.usgs.gov
minerals.usgs.gov
[Check out Brazil's lock on niobium / tantalum in the above link, by the way.]
China makes more aluminum than anyone else:
minerals.usgs.gov
China is responsible for nearly 95% of the world's production of rare earths, metals which have found a lot of uses in modern technology:
minerals.usgs.gov
China produces twice as much magnesium (used to make aluminum stronger) as the next largest producer (Turkey):
minerals.usgs.gov
They make almost as much lead as Australia, the leader:
minerals.usgs.gov
But nose out Australia for the world lead in zinc production:
minerals.usgs.gov
And they're number 2 in cadmium (after Japan):
minerals.usgs.gov
China is the world's third largest producer of silver, after Mexico and Peru:
minerals.usgs.gov
And they're a respectable number 4 in gold:
minerals.usgs.gov
I'm bringing all this up to point out that as China industrializes itself, she will use more and more of her own mineral output for her own purposes. While most of that cement and steel production probably are used in China itself, the other minerals that China is the primary or a leading producer of are largely exported.
As China industrializes, this will change. China will use more of its own mineral production and export less. Prices will rise, and this will benefit China at the expense of countries dependent on imports, such as ourselves.
It's not going to be possible for the US to remain as the world's only superpower. We should begin now to make that future world one that is friendly for us. This is a task that cannot be accomplished by force, because, in the future, we will no longer be as strong.
Maintaining an adversarial relationship with China is a really bad idea.
-- Carl |
