Not always. I used to work in a steel mill (60 years ago) that did a lot of "recycling" before the term was invented. That is, we mixed a lot scrap steel into the molten iron that went into the converter.
In general, though, you are correct. Recycling is pretty much of a loser. If it paid off, it wouldn't need to be a religion. People would do it because it was profitable.
Most of the mini steel mills that use EAFS, electric arc furnaces, use 100% or nearly, scrap to produce steel.
The word also was supposed to be ALMOST. My bad. Almost always recycling costs more.