U.S. Steel Mills Don’t Need the Russian Oligarch’s Pig Iron

Regarding “U.S. Sanctions Oligarch, Exempts His Companies” (Page One, March 31): There is no necessity for pig iron or anything else that Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov produces to be allowed to avoid U.S. sanctions. President Biden was brave enough to put sanctions on Russian oil, which affects gasoline prices in the U.S. It is hard to understand why the same principle isn’t applied to the enormously successful steel mills in the U.S. identified in your article.

There is no problem getting pig iron in the U.S. My company, Stelco , located in Ontario, has capacity of a million tons a year of pig iron, of which less than 10% is now being used. Two other major U.S. companies either produce or have announced the construction of production facilities for pig iron or a pig-iron substitute known as HBI (hot briquetted iron). Allowing sanctions avoidance is immoral and unnecessary for business purposes because there is plenty of untapped availability in North America.