> We are so unready to face mobilization to get on war footing right now. We cannot mobilize the industrial base… <
I grew up a few miles from a huge steel mill. That mill rolled battleship armor in WW2. The mill is gone now, and much of the site sits empty. But there is a dollar store and a car wash at one end.
So if we need lots of steel, and fast, we’re in trouble. But if we need cheap Chinese junk and clean cars I think we’ll be okay.
🙁
” I grew up a few miles from a huge steel mill. That mill rolled battleship armor in WW2. The mill is gone now, and much of the site sits empty. “
In Feb, 2002, the single USA source of ballistic steel was Oregon Steel, which is owned by EVRAZ, a Russian company controlled by Putin Oligarch Roman Obramavitch.
(EVRAZ was going to sell its North American operations, but Obramavich seems to have been exempted from sanctions, and I don’t think it has happened yet)
In any case, the USA imports 30% of steel used, so there have been shortages since the Ukraine war started and sanctions went on Russia, until recently when steel prices fell due to the economy.