New Britain herald., 1918-09-13
Steel and Pig
 Iron Markets

The Iron Age says today: Prepar~ ations for the meeting at Washington net week to consider iron and steel
 prices for the last quarter of the year are occupying producers in a number
 of lines. This week preliminary meet ings are being held in New York by several groups. notably by pig iron producers today "Wednesday. Later come iron ore interesrs and the class steel makers--those who buy all their pig ion.
 After their own meetings these groups will confer with the general
 steel committee and present their | claims for advances. On Monday September 16, full meeting of iron and steel manufacturers will be held in New York to formulate the posi- ton which the committee will take be- fore the Price Fixing Committee at Washington, September IS.
 Smaller producers are more cut spoken in calling for q separation of
 their case from that of the integrated companies. Yet they are not ready to have the Government take over all output at differential prices Neither Government nor steel trade wants to open that door.
 There has been some surprise over information that the Lake Superior iron ore producers, whose prices were
 put up 45c per ton in June, are now asking another advance. Their claim IS that the 35c increase in rail freight and the last 70 per cent added to
 wages have used up the June incre- ment. Owners of some of the smaller underground mines in particular are
 urging their need of a higher price
 on next years ore, to cover dead work which must be undertaken in the com ing winter
 Galvanized sheet manufacturers will
 ask to have prices advanced at least
 enough to cover the higher prices
 they pay for spelter Some wire and
 wire nail producers are urging claims
 for a, higher price on these products.
 Sentiment is divided between the
 view that the very number of the re-
 quests for higher prices will be con- vincing and the fear that the extent
 of the program puts much of 1t in jeopardy.
 The vast scale of the plans for the offensive in France appears in weekly calls for more steel. The distribution of 34,000 tons of barbed wire for the
 Government is just completed, with
 22,000 tons for France in abeyance, when the larger war demands for this product came up than have been con- sidered at any time thus far, Tn the Cleveland district, the placing of 10,-
 000,000 additional shell forgings is one indication of the tremendous re- cent enlargement of the munitions program The ordinary consumers chance of getting steel, judged solely by the developm ents of the past week, will grow steadily less in the final quarter of the year,
 Some letting down of demand may came in the structural field. Proba- bly, all the fabricated ship work for and it is expected that all essential work will be let before 1919. with total that will not keep the monthly volume of awards to the so to 65 per cent of capacity that has been the rule so far this year. The poor finan- cial showings of the railroads may rule out much railroad bridge work that earlier was thought certain.
 A number of fabricators of steel in the South. Middle West and North west are asking the Price Fixing Com rnittee to restore the Chicago basing prices which prevailed for nine months and were abandoned July 1, leaving only the Pittsburgh base. It is not likely that the return to the trade practice of years will be disturbed again, especially as Pittsburgh mills are furnishing 100000 tons of steel for the Pacific coast largely because of the fil1ed-up condition of Chicago mills.