To reproduce:
1. Found in a game by yourself, with no AIs
2. build an iron mine
3. build a steel mill far away from your base. Then hover over it to see what is happening with its internal resources. Most of the time, the steel mill will have insufficient iron to produce any steel, but it will just fail silently without letting you know.
In addition, the freighters will be carrying 13 iron, instead of 20 iron. That means you're paying more fuel, for no discernable reason.
This causes problems for non-science steel, non-science glass, all chem labs, non-science electrolysis, non-science farms, and all electronics factories.