The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-15
CORPORATION PRICE
 DROP IN STEEL IS
 STEADy|NG MARKET
Most HeaIthfuI Thing for Busi- ness That Has Happened In Months Is Consensus of
 Opinion Here

Steel trade has accepted the price reductions in steel products made by the Steel Corporation with a distinct feeling of relief, according to the in- dependent producers questioned in the matter yesterday.
 A well-posted Independent steel pro- ducer said, in effect:
 The new scale of the Steel Corpora tlon will have sobering effect and tend to make the job5ers feel there is no longer cause for doubt or hesitancy. l do not propnesy an immediate pur~ chasing movement following the an- nouncement, because general conditions are still such that no great demand ex- ists, but jobbers will feel more free to fill up on their depleted stocks, in the belief that bottom has been reached and that steel prices are now on gen. orally firm as well as uniform base.
 "rhe corporation reduced prices
 on bars, plates and structural steel.
 but not on wire products. However,
 the independents. who had under
 sold the corporation on these prod
 ucts, recently advanced their scale
 to level with the corporation.
 Now, therefore, all steel products,
 both of corporation and independ-
 ent manufacture, nre on practically
 the same level
 STEADYING EFFECT
 The trade had accustomed itself to look for quite a deep cut by the Steel Corporation, following maintenance of the same price list for two years. For that reason the jobbers have held off purchasing. Now that the corporation has named its prices and they conform to the scale of the independents, the uniformiay of the price list will have a decidedly sobering and steadying eff feet.
 "It is about the best thing that
 has occurred in the steel trade In
 some time and sounds the keynote
 of better business. There is an air
 of certainly and finaiity about it
 that cannot but have heaIthfuI
 effect"
 PRICES
 Reductions made by the Steel Cor poration were as follows: Four by four and heavier billets. from s3S.50 to $S7 per gross ton; slabs, $42 to s3S a gross ton; sheet bars and small bi1lets, SAT to $50 a gross ton; bars $2.25 to $z-lO per 100 pounds; plates, S2.65 to $2.20 per 100 pounds; structural, $2.45 to s2.20 per 100 pounds; wire rods s57 to $4S gross ton; plain wire base, sS.S5 to s3 per 100 pounds; tin plate, $7 to S6 per 25-base box; nails in kegs unchanged at $3.25 base.
 No announcement as to price of pig iron has been made by the corpora tion and none is expected. The corpor- ation does not enter extensively into the merchant iron business and is not naming a base at this time. For the preset it is not figuring in the iron trade. That is an open field for the merchant iron interests.
 RUSH SHIPMENTS
 General feature of the iron and steel market as well as the coke trade is the continuous demand for rush shipment of the small lots that are ordered. This rush request is almost universal and indicates to the manufacturers that more and more foundries are short of raw material
 Stocks of merchant iron did not in- crease last month and there is less thar normal months production on the Alabama yards. Any kind of buying movement will absorb these stocks in a very short while.