> and then immediately scrapping and recycling it You seem to be confused. Using steel as a raw material is not "scrapping and recycling". The value of steel i

> and then immediately scrapping and recycling it You seem to be confused. Using steel as a raw material is not "scrapping and recycling". The value of steel in engineering applications is that you can trust that the properties of a particular alloy used to make a particular part will comply with the specs. Steel from China is renowned for being unreliable and failing to comply with standardized properties. https://www.cdmg.com/building-faqs/why-using-cheap-steel-is-unsafe https://www.cdmg.com/building-faqs/why-using-cheap-steel-is-... You avoid that risk by importing steel as a raw material and use that to actually produce reliable steel. If low-quality steel is cheap enough so that after recycling it you can still make a profit then it's a sound business decision and the whole economy benefits.