New Britain herald., 1916-02-17
STEEL MILLS WILL
 BE KEPT VERY BUSY
Avalanche of Inquiries Expected
 From Neutral Nations
Especial to the Herald. ]

New York, Feb. 1.-The Iron Age vii say today:
 With further price advances and the end not yet in sight, with drawals and postpon ernent of new steel king, pro- jects occur, but they are as nothing in comparison with the avalanche of inquiries which are expected in early weeks from non-belligerent nations. The vague and general feelers from these sources are fast giving way to re- quests specific as to kind, amount and delivery. The ycom e. from quarters which have been waiting, for one rea- son and another, until the war should close, and their needs are urgent The peace and war demands from the out side thus are calculated to keen the mills busy if domestic consumers are not willing to pay present high prices. There are numbers who have counted on softer prices in the last part of the year, but the trend of recent weeks has convinced some large consumers they have overstayed.
 In sharp contrast is the attitude of the large agricultural implement man. ufacturers who have already secured mill space for their buying year begin ming July. 1. Usually the negotia-
 
 later date and have been protra cted. This year, with a possible exception, the contracts cover only the period to Jan. 1, 1917. This has been done in the face of the dsinclination of mills to consider future contracts, yet the pressure has been sufficiently great that one middle west interest last week took 10000 tons under contract
 No Effect on Market
 The grouping of large independent steel companies-like the Midvale- Worth Brothers Cambria merger and the Bethlehem-Penn union is of no effect at the moment on mar ket conditions, but it is, of course, rec- ognized that over three-quarters of the steel-making capacity of the country will be lodged with six or seven com- panies. This does not warrant. how ever, the expectation that in slack times competition will be any the less severe.
 There are signs that a long practice of modified rules on transportation by railroads of material for export may have permanent effect. Ihls may not result in higher cost to the shipper, thought he now temporarily b4lIS ullG pTooucIS dS uoillCoIAN and at domestic rates in order to get around the embargoes, but will doubt less work toward quicker handling of shipm ents at destination criminals and a better utilization of railroad cars.
 Catch Up Slightly.
 The resistance of the mills to new coumitm ents is allowing one or two to catch up slightly, but only slightly, while specifications on contracts are far beyond pro rata amounts and Shlp- ments on them way under. There is no gainsaying that domestic consu1n- CTS are suspicious that lucrative war orders are responsible, tn bought they were woefully late in coming into the market. The fact remains that the larger mills, at least, have taken care that their year-in and year-out cus- toners will get what they have already bought, and as promptly as influences beyond their control will allow.
 Sales for export contain some not able items No less than 60,000 tons of plain wire for France is reported from Chicago. For Africa America has taken ,OO0 tons of rails accord ing to our Londcn cable. A Russian inquiry is for 30,OOO axles complete
  pected additional Russian purchase of railroad cars has not been consum- mated, nor the 6O,0OO tons of rails and 14,000 tons of track accessories.
 Explain Heavy Demand.
 That plant extensions and generally small work have been the order in the fabricated steel industry and are an explanation of the heavy demand that was hardly discernible in the absence of jobs of spectacular size is shown in the report from Chicago that the average number of tons on contracts taken in the last six months was 1lo against 175 tons for the six months preceding. AS an average Of S| 12 per cent. of the capacity of the bridge and structural shops was put under con- tract over the last six months and o4 per cent. for the half year preceding, It follows that there were twice as many jobs taken in the one period as in the earlier.