As I understand it virgin steel is smelted from ore using coke to reduce it. Electric arc furnaces are used to recycle steel. The US recycles a lot of steel but has off-shored smelting.
The difference is that virgin steel is used to make cold rolled steel, the good stuff for car panels and white goods etc and until recently Russia was a BIG supplier. The supply vacuum today is with virgin steel while Russia is the subject of sanctions. Australia already has a niche market in CRS which should be expanded.
Australia again sacrifices itself on the carbon altar.
