The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-06
POWERS
 PLACE TREMENDOUS ORDERS FOR STEEL
Big Developments Looked For in Rails and Railroad Supplies-Plants Ex-
 tend Capacity

Cleveland, O.. May 6-(special )-The Iron Trade Review tomorrow will say:
 Reports of tremendous orders and n- quiries for rails. rolling stock and other railroad supplies for Russia involve such great tonnages as to indicate gross ex- aggeration. but it Is true that some very
 important foreign business is being con sidered by companies of high standing and it Is probable that there will soon be
 important developments.
 Much of this foreign business is con ducted with extreme secrecy aud it will not be surprising If denials asa followed by positive evidence of large bookings as has been the case in regard to other reports. Positive evidence of the large volume of foreign business taken in the past few weeks is shown by rush orders for structural steel aggregating 10000 tons during past week for the construction of new buildings by companies engaged in manufacture of materials. Export de- mand for machine tools continues fully as strong as at any time since war was declared, most of buying being by Rus sia and England. An important order for equipment for turning out projectiles has been placed by the Tredegar Iron Works Richmond. Va. The Crucible Steel Com pany of America will erect three new buildings requiring 4O00 tons structural steel at its plant at Harrison, N. J., for production of machine forginss
 Fiany plants in the east are making extensions to their capacity. On the whole. the steel business has made sat isfactory progress during April and book ings were of fair volume at most mills being in most cases heavier than in March. Many companies are now in best position they have occupied for many months and prices are showing increas- ing steadiness. Quotations on fabricated steel, which have been extremely low, are showing Improvements and business booked by important companies during the past week averages sl higher in eastern territory
 Tube business is still backward and some mills are badly in need of orders. Ocean freight rates continue to be very important factors in foreign business. which would increase to much larger if freight rates were not so high United States Steel corporation operated last week at p per cent of ingot capacity and expects to do better this week
 Inquiries have been issued by Penn sylvania railroad for 13S,000 tons of steel rails, which will be the principal of it's 1915 requirements. Algoma Steel corpor- ation well as rail makers in the Unit ed States. have invited to bid on Penn sylvania tonnage. Buying of cars and locomotives for service in this country is very light.
 New York capitalists have shown their confidence that prices of pig iron will advance by buying from 76.000 to 100000 tons northern and southern foundry and steel making grades for investment. Ad- vancements in price have been made by Virginia and Alabama furnaces and sen timent prevailing in southern states is much more cheerful.
 Buying = Chicago last month aggre- gated much larger tonnage than in the preceding month"; There Is fair amount of buying in the central west at present and the melt is being well maintained.