So true. I was going to speculate that better equipment like vacuum furnaces and analysis instruments is why, but the same vacuum furnaces and spectrology sensors are available in those other countries too. Truth is, regardless of the how, pride is why US steel is better. You can look at the US made A36 steel in an actual steel yard and then look at the imported A36 in a box store (The black iron pipe at HD is labeled A36) and the difference is obvious. Cold rolled vs hot rolled (shiny smooth vs ripply), burn-off shellac vs black spray paint, etc.
For snickers and grins I took a walk through Sears yesterday. I'm almost positive that my sears is on the chopping block. "Hiring" signs everywhere, but they clearly show the job is commission so "The sky is the limit!", haha! No customers=no commissions, so they are definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for employees. Last year I tricked my wife into letting me buy an new roll-away so I could "clean up the garage" and I got a Craftsman made by waterloo in the US. Obviously not as beefy as my work box (made in MI, but don't know the actual manufacturer), but that box is for work and the Craftsman is just for my garage. I quit my job to stay home with my daughter and go back to school, so now I have both in the garage. Man, I'm really off in the weeds, aren't I?
So back to Sears. I've been missing a 3/4" 12pt combo from a set for a few years now. Every time I go in there I check to see if they have one made in the US and they never do. They are still getting new wrenches made in the US from somewhere, mixed in with the Chinese ones, but not the one that I need. Also my 5/16" nut driver (the yellow one that fits almost every hose clamp) is about worn out. They have US made sets, but the onesy-twosy singles are all Chinese. BUT I did find a US tool that I've been thinking about for a while. My Craftsman prybars are getting pretty old. The red handles have faded to pink and the bars feel really springy, probably because I've become a super strong, muscly pinnacle of male virility (or I'm just so much fatter than I used to be). The US made three bar set was $25 so I picked it up.
A fun tidbit for used-tool hunters, the "Craftsman Professional" handtools were S-K, and a lot still are. When they replaced the "Professional" with "full polish" is when they went Chinese, but to be fair that's also when S-K filed bankruptcy. If you look at their "professional" handled tools, you can see they're visually identical to S-K, except being red where the S-K is green. The problem is that they share the design license, so Craftsman is making them in China, while S-K is all US again. Hunting for used tools, if you find older Craftsman professional, it's more than likely that it's actually S-K.