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Comment by pjscott | Hacker News Reader

How in-house does it need to be? The actual physical facilities aren't being shut down; they're just under new ownership and management. And Nippon Steel is located in Japan, which is such a dependable ally of the US that I'm politely trying not to use the phrase "vassal state."

Also in the US, we've got Steel Dynamics (producing 75% as much as US Steel), Cleveland-Cliffs (approximately tied with US Steel), and Nucor (about 157% as much). That's not the whole story, of course -- Nucor primarily recycles scrap steel, for example, as opposed to smelting ore -- but I'm not really seeing a crisis anywhere on the horizon here. (My opinion in this paragraph is less confident than the first, so I'm open to correction from someone who knows more about the steel industry.)

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US Steel was a major contributor of steel for the WWII military machine. Honest question: if WW3 were to start, would we be able to appropriate Nippon-owned USS factories for wartime use?

Yes- everything on US soil is uh, vulnerable to the national guard showing up with tanks and giving orders.

So, this is an interesting question and one which I watched unfold in COVID times.

The law that would specifically come into play here is called the Defense Production Act, and it’s complicated.

Here’s a great overview:

https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/what-defense-production-act

For more specifics, I would look at this overview which is excellent:

https://www.businessdefense.gov/ibr/mceip/dpai/dpat3/docs/DP...

In wartime, seizing capacity from an ally is… problematic. That’s my concern. What is technically possible isn’t necessarily diplomatically viable, and there are quite a few layers of laws here.

In the event of WW3 it's going to involve either Russia or China, neither of whom Japan would even consider allowing to come to further dominance, even by inaction. Japan would be at the White House Day 1 of the war offering their 100% backing including all steel production in both countries if needed.

> US Steel was a major contributor of steel for the WWII military machine. Honest question: if WW3 were to start, would we be able to appropriate Nippon-owned USS factories for wartime use?

given that the US military is in the region, yes, we'd be 'able to'.

a more interesting question would be "what lead to our ally denying war-effort when prompted in the midst of a world war?"

WW3 will be over before we will be able to get Japan on the phone to ask.

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