The latter two enjoy a cost advantage over Vale due to the geographical proximity of Asia-Pacific countries to Australia from where they primarily ship iron ore.

FORBES: Vale's Valemax Service Still Faces Hurdles In China

Vast ship-borne imports of iron ore, coal and bauxite make up other raw ingredients for Chinese growth.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

Tata, which mines all the iron ore and coal it needs, now aims to carry out primary steel production close to its iron-ore deposits, and then ship semi-finished steel for finishing close to foreign consumer markets.

ECONOMIST: Why the Tata-Corus deal makes sense for both parties

The holding-down bolts of twelve boilers and three triple-expansion engines, unintended to hold such weights from a perpendicular flooring, snapped, and down through a maze of ladders, gratings and fore-and-after bulkheads came these giant masses of steel and iron, puncturing the sides of the ship .

NEWYORKER: Unsinkable

Iron-eating microbes are steadily breaking down the actual sunken ship, but the pieces already culled from the wreck's 13-mile debris field are "spectacular, " said John Joslyn, the owner of a pair of Titanic theme museums in Missouri and Tennessee who helped to fund the first salvaging expedition in 1987.

WSJ: Titanic Shipwreck Is Up for Sale at Guernsey's

China needs iron ore and unobstructed energy imports a lot more than it needs drop-ship warehouses in Reno.

FORBES: The U.S. Isn't Encouraging Chinese Investment

For instance, Nekvasil visited a ship Friday in Indiana Harbor, Indiana that's designed to carry 76, 000 tons of iron ore.

CNN: New water lows for Great Lakes could drain local economies