Department of Defense Procurement Policies as Related to Steel

The objective of the Government's industrial mobilization planning is to ensure that production requirements for essential military supplies and services will be met during a national emergency. The Secretary of Defense has identified items which must be purchased only from producers in the United States and Canada in the interest of national defense. The policy of the Department of Defense is to purchase such commodities as steel at the lowest possible cost consistent with existing procurement statutes and regulations. This policy is not, however, intended to encourage the purchase of foreign steel. The level of peacetime usage of steel in defense items does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to justify restricting procurement of the steel content of such items to United States and Canadian sources in order to create or maintain emergency capability to produce steel. Many defense items restricted to U.S. or Canadian sources do contain steel, but the restriction is based on the need to maintain production capability for a specific defense item and is not related to its steel content.