One other parameter that I think you overlooked is that China essentially uses slave labor. Flooding the market with steel that would bankrupt an American is not necessarily a hardship for a Chinese company that pays its workers a few dollars a day.
If the playing field were equal, then the dynamics would be different: any given company would have only a limited ability to flood the market.
But that’s not what we have. China’s ability to flood the market is as expansive as its population.
One other consideration is Chinese quality control: it exists on paper. We get the cheap goods, but that old adage “you get what you pay for” is completely true. When you buy steel that does not meet your specifications, did you really save money?
A third consideration is that our manufacturing base is shrinking, and our economy is only as large as our ability to manufacture products. If no one is manufacturing anything, we have no economy. Sure, we can keep the printing presses rolling, but the money we print is worthless without a GDP to give it value. At some point, the Chinese are not going to be satisfied with receiving money that is worth nothing—they actually do want something of value for the stuff they are dumping on our market.
This is, simply, not true.
Think nothing is made in America? Output has doubled in three decades