New Britain herald., 1917-04-05
Steel and Pig
 Iron Markets
The Iron Age says:

have put ordinary trade considera- tions in the background. But lead- CTS in the steel industry. the govern ment's main war resource, have been busy finding ways to put their prod
 uct and the best service of their plants at the countrys disposal.
 There was further conference in
 manufacturers committee and the l metals commissioner of the Council 1 of National Defense. It is probable
 that the government will buy in the l near future for its own wants and those of ship-yards which are to do it's l work, 5OO,OOO tons of plates, shapes 1 and bars. Substantial concessions are l to be made from current prices. but the proposal to take a 10-year mark | ct average was not adopted, as that would represent less than cost to com panies not owning their own ore and l coal.
 The problem is not as simple as it looks to be, or as the precedent of a 50 per cent cut in the copper price
 would suggest. Copper at one-half
 off the market still gives 100 per cent.
 profit to many producers. A steel plate price of Sc, instead of 6c, would
 mean a fraction of cent above cost
 to mill paying $35 a ton for basic pig iron. The integrated companies could only stand it by telescoping the profits now made on coke, pig iron and ingots.
 Government needs can be handled
 for the present without serious inter- ference with ordinary trade: but while war requirements are only a small percentage of the total steel out put, they represent much larger | proportion of the plate tonnage, and | some plate users may have to stand aside.
 What gives steel producers concern l is the extent to which government various industries with which the gov l ernment will make contracts. The concessions the government will ask 1 from these latter will call in turn for l concessions on steel, and the trade is quite in the dark today as to the ulti- mate effect of these widely ramifying 1 influences upon the price structure.
 Buyers of war steel for Europe have already inquired whether orders l placed by the United States govern ment will delay deliveries of war steel for export. The answer is found ! in the announced purpose of this gov l ernment to put it's resources at the Allies disposal to the fullest extent Domestic consumers recognize that l some export business that has not 1 been entertained heretofore must now be given a place at the mills. Only time will show it's volume. Until various uncertainties are cleared, mills in the lines specially affected by government demand dis courage buying. Meanwhile market prices advance with even greater ease
 than was'th case at much lower lev els. Machine-tool prices in various lines are reported also to have moved up an average of ten per cent. Wrought pipe continues it's upward movement by leaps and bounds. One independent maker announced a $1O advance March 26. The National Tube company and others put out new dis counts April 2. representing S10 | ton higher for steel pipe, black and galvanized. On iron pipe the last ad- vance is $1, and on extra strong, $14. l Cast iron pipe, which not so long ago was advancing by 26-cent steps. | is now we'll adjusted to the new pace, the price going up $3 ton in the { past week, or to $50.5O, New York, for 6-1nch heavy pipe. - Tn fixing ~&7.50 a box as the price l Of tin plate for the second half, against $5.75 for the first half. the, l chief producer has come short of the expectations of some independent companies which had set out to ask 8. It is question now how much tin plate can be had at 7.50 by buyers
 not already covered by provisional
 contracts Buyers rather than sell
 lers> may make the market, in a way l thet is quite familiar.
 1 The leading sheet producer opened
 its books April for the second half
 of the year at 4.95c. for No. 3 to No.
 8 gage, blue aflnealed; 5.5Oc for No. ] 22 Bessemer black sheets, 7c. for No.
 2S galvanized and 5.50c. for No. 2S
 tin-mill black plate.
 1 March was the best month for steel
 works and blast furnaces, in point of
 output, since November. an indica-
 ton of definite betterment in car movement. Pig-iron production for
 the month was 3.25o.757 tons. or 1 104.S62 tons a day, the highest rate l since November, and comparing with
 but 2,645,247 tons in February, or 1 94,473 tons a day. More blast fur
 naces are going in, in spite of costly
 coke, and 331 were active April 1,
 with a capacity of 107,766 tons
 day, against 316 furnaces on March
 1, with a capacity of 97,167 tons' a
 day.
 The tension in coke is relaxing and the price for prompt shipment has
 come down sharply, 7.50 having been
 done with indications that $7 is pos sible, as against SIP as March came in. .. The situation in ferroalloys is tightening. The imperative necessity of manganese supplies will make that | ,no+ter a first concern to Great Brit