Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-02-14
GERMAN STEEL
EXPORTS RIVAL
THOSE OF u. S.
Poverty Ridden Nation
Pushes to Fore With
Products.
IN SECOND PLACE
SECOND
PLACE
Special to Indiana Daily. Times
and Philadelphia Public Ledger.


WASHINGTON, Feb. 14-Germany, the
supposedly impoverished is pushing the
United States hard for first place as tho
worlds chief exporter of steel products.
Estimated figures for 1921, just made
public by the Department Of Commerce,
show Americas total may be 100000
tons and Germany's 2,150,0OO. 1t VIII re-
Quire actual official statistics to deter
mine exact facts In any event the race
win be neck and neck. Already the Ger
mans have Outdistanced all their Euro
pean competitors in the steel industry.
Great Britain's estimated steel export is
1650,000 tons; Frances 100000 ana
Belgtum's 100000. No other revelations
Of Germany's quick comeback" as an
industrial power emphasize its reality
so graphically as these facts and ngures
from the barometrical iron trade.
Not only are the Germans crowding
the United States in the steel markets of
the world, but they are selling more
iron and steel to America than any other
country supplies US. In December we i'm
ported 1910 tons. From Germany came
3,O37 Of them, or about three times as
much as we bought from Canada despite
the proximity of the Dominion and the
lower cost of freight from there. Our
German importations included pig iron,
steel bars and small lots of rails, sheets,
plates and structural material. In other
months of 1921 our steel importations
came principally from Belgium and Can
ada In December, Germany bounded
into first place. Low prices were respons-
ible. She is expected in 1922 to hold the
lead now gained two months ago.
STRUCTURAL STEEL
CHIEF PURCHASE.
japan and Chinta sold Us, between
them, 5000 or 1000 tons Of iron and steel
last year. Germany's expectations to Us
were mostly IN structural steel.
Germanys total steel exports are still
considera bly, less than half Of her pre-
war figures, which IN 1918 were 5,3OS, 600
tons. At that time she had far out
stripped both the United States with
$4,000 tons) and Great Britain with
4,250000 tons) as the worlds chief steel
exporter. That the Germans still are
able, despite their loss OF the Lorraine
and Silesian iron ore mines, to manu-
facture and market steel products prodi-
giously and prOfitably is shown by their
output Of 1000 900 tons of pig iron in
1921 and of 100000 to 100000 tons Of
steel during the same year. 1t is es-
timated, roughly, one-fourth OF the total
German output Of steel and iron was solo
abroad.
Hugo SHINES, the uncrowned king Of
Germany, is the country's supreme iron
master. He is said to cherish the theory
that if Germany can dominate the export
steel market throughout the world a. she
did before the war, her return to indus
trial pre-eminence is a matted only Of
comparatively few years SHINES not
only mines his own iron, but makes his
own steel and operates his own feet of
transOceanic steamers to dump" it In
foreign markets at order compelling
prices. His recent sales of rails in the
United States were only the opening
guns in the globe girdling campaign
SHINES purposes to wage for German
steel domination.
HOOVER SAYS GERMAN
FOREIGN TRADE BOOMs.
Secretary Hoover's department reports
German foreign trade as booming IN
every direction. The figures for Decem-
Der show the first balance recorded In
Germanys favor during 192t-that Is to
say the economic tide at length has
turned and Germany is once again ex-
porting more than she is importing The
figures in paper marks were Is coo 600 600,
while imports amounted total 137O00OO,-
600 marks. Sales to the United States
were responsible for increased German
foreign sales Of wooden manufacturers,
glass and glassware. leather goods, rub
Der, cotton products, electrical wares and
heavy chemicals. Along with Germany's
return to steel and iron 'normalcy," she
rapidly is getting into her prewar stride
in respect to coal production. OF Ignite.
Germany mined more in 1921 than she
produced in 1913 Her output Of pit-coal
and coke is expected within few months
to attain old-tim levels.
The general conclusion authorities draw
from the eloquent figures herein obtained
is that the Germans despite their walls
about the injustice Of the reparatlons and
their poverty, probably are recovering in
dustrinl equilibrium faster than any other
European buyer. The world sometimes
forgets Germany was not invaded. She
emerged from the war industrialy intact,
but with her powers Of mechanical prod
uctivity multiplied many times by the
emergencies Of the campaign There IS
said not to be a key industry in the
United States that Is not feeling German
competition keenly. In such branches
as cutlery she is cutting the ground com
pletely from beneath American manufac-
turers and drugging the market at prices
which Americans cannot touch. Some
body tried recently in a fashionable
Washington jewelry store to buy a pair
of silver shears for presentation to a
Cabinet minister the only set available
was stamped Made in Germany and was
not Copyright, 1921, by Pub
lie Ledger COMPANY