Also, writing off $1B of non mining related exports as completely unimportant is strange. We don't export all that much that's not minerals or agricultural products. $1B of steel and aluminium would seem to be fairly significant to me, particularly for the skilled workers in that industry.

I want to give the benefit of the doubt but it's such an egregious error. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of our steel/aluminium industries would see how blatantly false it is.

No, it's more like 0.5% of our total exports. Lumping iron ore in with steel and aluminium production is misleading.

Well you're comparing steel and aluminium exports to the US with iron and aluminium ORE exports to China. They're not even close to being the same thing and the article linked also doesn't make the distinction. Reality is we barely export any steel or aluminium to China, for obvious reasons.

Sorry there is no possible way that this is correct. If you go to the UN Commtrade site the only way to get to $79B of exports to China is by including Iron and Aluminium ORE. Which is not quite the same thing.