In 2018, US President Donald Trump had imposed steep tariff barriers on steel imports to the tune of 25%. His move that partly came out of this ambition to make America great again and enhancing US national security was met with widespread criticism because it hurt not just China but also companies based in European countries, America's closest allies. Nevertheless, Trump had persisted with his national security tariffs on steel and even expanded them earlier this month. However, one important takeaway from the move is that Trump treats steel as a strategic good and he protected the American steel industry not just for the jobs. While Trump has been treating steel as a strategic good, it is suddenly not true for other parts of the world which have virtually given away a lion's share to China when it comes to steel production. China's dominance in this sector is mind-boggling as the country produces over 51.3% of the world's steel. There is a tendency to treat stainless steel as a fringe sector which has led to countries around the world at Beijing take control of its production. But the underrated material is needed for almost everything from cutlery to aircraft, tankers and surgical instruments. In this sense, complete dependence on China is a strategic plunder. Such has been China's dominance that American and European defence contractors have become overly dependent on China. The production of everything from warships to aircraft is dependent on Chinese steel. China's rise in steel production seems unreal. In 2005, the Asian giant produced only 12.9% of the world's stainless steel while Europe produced 34.8% and United States produced 9.2%. Now the equations have changed dramatically. As China produces 52.6% of the world's stainless steel while the shares of Europe and United States have dropped to a dismal 15.6% and 5.5%. Western countries made the strategic blunder of allowing China to silently hijack the steel industry. Thus in 2004, only one Chinese company Shanghai Bao Steel made it to the top 10 steel producers. And in 2018, six of the world's 10 largest steel producers turned out to be Chinese companies. The Chinese steel industry itself is highly decentralized with hundreds of steel makers across the country while the larger producers are mainly state owned. This gives a measure of China's domination. There are relatively fewer large advanced steel makers in China. These large steel makers capture less than 50% of China's steel production share get managed to become some of the biggest producers across the world. In 2018, China produced 930 million metric tons of crude steel and China's Bao-Woo Group produced 67.43 million metric tons of steel, a small share in China's production, but it still became the second biggest steel manufacturer in the world. The HBI's Group produced still lesser steel at 46.8 million metric tons, yet it managed to occupy the fourth spot in worldwide rankings. Clearly, there is a huge gap between the production capacity of China and other countries. 930 million metric tons is what China produced within the country, and its actual capacity might even be higher if we consider what China is producing beyond its own borders. For example, there is a stainless steel plant in Indonesia that can produce as much as 3 million metric tons of the strategic metal every year, but there is a twist in this story. The plant is not Indonesian rather it is owned by a Chinese steel major, and Indonesia is not the only such country where China is producing steel, and it is aiming distant paths to the world for augmenting steel production. China's HBI Iron and Steel Group has an ambitious plan to set up a steel plant in South Africa, which would be Beijing's largest overseas steel mill. Last year, it was reported that a newly formed Chinese firm wanted to set up a steel mill in Brazil with a humongous 8 million metric tons of production capacity as a part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. In fact, China has been investing in Brazil's steel industry heavily. In the Covid-19 context, there is an enhanced understanding of the need to cut down dependence on China, and this could extend to the strategic steel sector as well. India has a viable steel market with 111.2 million metric tons of steel production in 2019. This is a 5.9% share in the global production, but it needs to empower its own steel players now, particularly giants like Arsol or Mithal, the Luxembourg-based group that has taken over Indian-owned Mithal steel in 2006. The steel major produced 96.42 million metric tons in 2018, making it the biggest steel maker in the world. Morova, South Korean steel majors like Hyundai Steel and Posco are also interested in shifting production to India. Japan happens to be another player in steel sector with 5.3% share in global output. This is an opportunity that India must seize. Countries like India, Japan and South Korea can help the world's shed its dependence on the Chinese steel industry.