Simon Hunt is a Brit who has been going to China six-eight times a year for 30 years; and he physically inspects copper physical stocks at air conditioner factories, cable suppliers, mines, fabs, etc. He touches everything, and in the process he also gets a handle on steel. He is very wired into China now, because the guys he started out dealing with have now grown into positions of very senior authority. He has been writing on steel of late. In pieces from other numerous writers, I am following some real problems with iron ore, both overseas and in the US. The Empire State and other PMIs are down. Something is happening here that may be more than just the sturm and drang of supply/demand. “Chinese banks and companies looking to seize steel pledged as collateral by firms that have defaulted on loans are making an uncomfortable discovery: the metal was never in the warehouses in the first place.”