Opinion

To understand the state of our steel and related manufacturing industries we need to travel back to January 1, 1946. Envision a northern hemisphere world map centered on Europe. Mark that map at Oslo, Norway, Cairo, Egypt, London, England and Moscow, Russia. Now just draw a rough circle around that area. Within that circle essentially all infrastructures including manufacturing capacity had been flattened by WWII.
Now move east and center the map on Southeast Asia. Mark the eastern border of India, the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the norther tip of Australia and the northern tip of Manchuria. Draw the circle. Here, too, there was little surviving infrastructure or manufacturing.
Now move further east and center your map on North America......