New Britain herald., 1920-03-04
PIG IRON AND
 STEEL MARKETS
The Iron A @e says:

The Iron Age says:
 While buying by the railroads did not wait for their return to their own CTS on March l. the steel trade has been busy in the past three days with new calculations of tonnage that will come to the mills in the next two months for railroad account. F,sti- mates of early car contracts have gone as high as 100000. In actual orders 2.5O0 cars for the Santa Fe Is the largest item, and the Erie has placed 900 box cars. Three Western roads are about to buy 1000 cars each. and the l.. X N. and Southern
 Pacific will build 1000 box cars each
 in their own shops. In locomotive or ders. too, good beginning has been made Canadian roads are also ne gotlatinS for new rolling stock.
 The favorable decision in the Steel corporation suit though received with much satisfa ction, has not been market factor. The main considera- ton throughout the trade has been the probah hle effect on mill deliveries to non-railroad buyers, and on prices, Of the orders the railroads will place. There is good deal of uncertainty as to the amount of equipment the roads can finance at once.
 The buyirg of finished steel by the faIifoadS Tor car repalrS and other purposes will be considerable The Pennsylvania took about 10000 tons of plates, shapes and bars last week. paying ssoc to 4c for plates and 4c for bars. Prompt shipm ent on certain railroad purchases is being made, which may mean that delivery troubles of some other buyers will not improve. Naturally specihcatio on s4I rails, are going promptly to the mills. while those on S51 rails are held back
 Opposing views are coming out on developments in the next three months. It is known that some in dependent mills have no large book ings ahead. but much hinges on the rate at which transportation can be untans1ed. There is questioning of the High prices esta blished for certain products: at the same time, the rigid attitude of sellers remains.
 Car supply has not improved in the Central West. In the Pittsburgh dis trict it has scarcely reached 65 per cent. At Youngstown output of fin ishing mills fell to 50 per cent from the same cause.
 Pig iron production last month was at the highest rate since February, 1919. The total for the 29 days was 2.97s.S79 tons. or 1o2.720 tons per day. as against 3,015,1s1 tons in Jan uary. or 97,264 tons per day. In 1919 the February output was 1O5,006 tons per day.
 On March 1 active blast furnaces numbered 3o4, a net gain of 14 in the pa ast month. The capacity of these furnaces is 104,5S0 tons per day, which compares with 99,465 tons per day for 290 furnaces on Feb. 1. Sur prisingly. in view of the recent ob- stacles to steel works operation, pig iron production Ma rc]l was at the rate of more than 3S,000,O00 tons per year. or close to the average for 1917 and 1918. Some accumulation of pig iron at steel works is thus in dicated.
 The reports of sales of basic pig iron at Pittsburgh by steel companies at less than the recent level of s4a, Valley, have been confirmed, as sev- eral thousand tons went at $I1.50, Valley, but other sales have been made at $43. The weakness in the basic market is attributed to de- creased demand due to the steel plants not being able to work at capacity. There is a strong feeling in the Pitts burgh district that pig iron prices will not be higher in the near future. Tn the East the pig iron market is strong, with some tendency in the Philadel- phia district toward higher quotations.
 New labor troubles, together with lack of raw materials and shortage of cars have created conditions in the steel trade Of Great Britain similar to those ill this country. English steel makers are unwilling sellers at any price. The majority of Welsh steel workers are on strike for a 10 per cent wage advance. The tin n-plate industry is particularly threatened owing to the cutting off of supplies of bars. Workers are demanding 6 hour shifts and Ia bor already is in sufficient Output will be reduced 20 to 2o per cent if present demands are enforced.