The New York herald., 1922-07-02

:SfEEL PRODUCTION
]: SHOWS SLIGHT GAIN
Industry Back at Output Rate
( Which Obtained When the
! Coal Strike Began.
.COAL SUPPLY Is GOOD
Mills Generally Are Comfort
: ably Filled With Business
for July and August.


Special Dispatch to The NEw YosK HERALD.
PITTSBURGH. July 1.-The general
opinion formed of late in business cir
scles that the country's. coal supply is
running rather low is not confirmed by
what occurs in the steel industry, which
ds even now slightly increasing its op-
.erations. Full details are not furnished
.as to where the coal and coke are COM
ding from, but the mill and furnace op-
erations show that it is being delivered.
The United States Steel Corporation, for
instance. last Saturday blew in its only
remaining idle furnace at Lorain, O.,
while 1t was stated that by the end of
lthis week or the first Of next another
stack at New Castle, Pa will be started.
making 80 active Carnegie stacks, while
the National Tube Company has ac-
tive.
Steel ingot production is now running
ut all of 3s.000.o0 tons year. against
rates of about $4,000, 900 tons year at
the time the coal strike started and
.20.000,00o tons last December. This -
the showing of the steel industry after
three months of the strike. but it may
not be the criterion of coal conditions
generally.
/ There has been further decrease in
the volume of turnover in the finished
steel markets. Mills attribute this to
their unwillingness to sell for late deliv-
cries rather than to any decrease in the
buying pressure. On the majority Of
products early deliveries command
premiums. and with the decrease in for
ward buying larger proportion of the
total business done Is at the higher
prices in. the ranges quoted on various
products. More bars, shapes and plates
are selling at 1.65c., 1.70c. and higher
than 1.60c
The steel mills in general are COM
fortably filled with business for July
and August. and so far as their order
books are concerned will be able tn
maintain production without the aid of
any additional sales of consequence 4
decidedly quiet summer period in the
market is to be expected. While con-
sumers may not have large stocks. there
has been some replenishment since tho
first of the year. Tho common preiic-
tion is that actual consumption will in
crease so that the stocks will be needed
Good Demand for sheets.
4 There is a continued demand from di-
~ersified channels for sheets, no inter-
ruption in bookings being noticeable
Sheets for the automotive and allied in
dustries are sought eagerly, but inqu!-
ries and orders for practically every
thing produced in sheet mills are numei-
Gus. If one grade les.ds another it is
galvanized, for which there appears t.
be an increased consumption in building
construction. Large orders are also
noted for black and blue annealed cleo
trical sheets and specialties. There is a
difference in quotations. the leading in
terests' figures being 2.40 cents for blue
annealed sheets, 3.15 cents for black,
Ais cents for galvanized and 4.50 cents
for automobile sheets, base PittsbLi gh
One or two. independents are understood
to have covered some customers at these
levels, while others are quoting from SO
to s5 ton higher. II the case of Nd.
% gauge full finished automobile sheets.
at least one producer is naming 4.S5
cents, or 81 ton over.the leading in
te-ests' level.
Operations of the American Sheet and
Tin Plate Companys sheet mills are
now at about So per cent. of capacity,
slightly lower than during the last few
weeks Independents are operating Oh
an average of between so and 50 per
cent. and are also feeling the exects of
the fuel and box car shortages, in a1di-
ton to the labor shortage. Export
sheet trade improves, although this
business is more or less undesirable -
the mills during tho hot summer
months. Japan is again figuring largely
in the purchase of thin gauge sheets for
building and other purposes.