Steel

The world shifted gears a few times last century. During the wars, post wars, then collapse of Soviet Union and Japan's lost decade. These pointers are relevant for permanent products like steel which drive a lot of infrastructure growth which underlies a lot of development of nations.

One of the biggest shift was Japan's lost decade, but then around the same time, China's dramatic rise. So much of the world economy growth is powered by China's growth over the last 20-30 years apart from other changes in the tech world. Often leading to question about perhaps enough innovation happens to sustain growth in the future, as there is no other China (and this is not really consumption, but the development and trade growth in China which fuelled the global economy).

Anyhow, the idea was to show a visual example of China impact, on say, Steel. The first chart is only until 2010 but makes the point clearly. The second chart can be referred for the data points up to date till recent years.