Rowdy, you have a point: The organisation that was to become the European Union was founded in the 50's to control the European steel and coal resources. This to prevent any one country from building a powerful military.

The construction boom in China has been going on for many years and more building materials is needed each year as the economy grows. Even India is building like never before and must use up a lot of building materials. I suppose it's possibly that the crisis in Asia in the late 90's hid the effects of this boom by reducing construction in all the other countries. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that the effect should come suddenly this year. [Linked Image]