The New York herald., 1922-05-28
STEEL PRODUCTION
INCREASES SLOWLY
lnn. 900 Tons Of Finished
Rolled Metal Pouring Into
Trade Day.
BUYERS PRESSING MILLS
Purchases Chiefly for Build
ing, Equipment and Auto
mobile Uses.
BUYERS PRESSING MILLS

Special Dispatch to THE NEW York HERALD.
PITTSBURGH, May 27.-Steel produc-
mills make further Improvement in the
fuel supplies or feel freer to draw on
their reserves. which are still large.
With steel being poured into the trade
net tons of finished rolled steel day
the urgency of buyers for deliveries does
not decrease but rather increases. The
mills are under very considerable press
ure to make deliveries
Apart from buying steel for fabricated
structural work, freight car building and
repair and automobile rnanufacture. the
trade at large is not buying heavily
Most buyers placed orders and contracts
very freely In April and earlier months
OF this year and now supply require de-
liveries. Some buyers. however were
.not forehanded, not anticipating present
conditions. and their buying, although
not large In tonnage in proportion to
total output, is sufficient to make a
strong steel market when mills already
are sold up to a larse extent for the
next two months.
In all finished steel products. market
prices are finn and N several of them
premium prices arc ruling for early de-
livefies. The tonnage sold at premium
prices is not large but sufficient to show
that Ia several lines the buyer without
a regular source of supply must pay a
premium to obtain prompt shipment, a
shipment that any Mill was glad to
make "a few months aso at the market
minimum.
The coal strike, now in its eighth
week, shows no signs of coming to an
carly md, but the steel interests are so
we'll fortified with stocks and contracts
In non-union fields that no particular
concern is felt for future production.
The steel market has now acquired suf-
ficient strength and moi,'entum to carry
. 1T throu1h the provefoiel!y dull summer
period and next autumn is likely to open
with very fair prospects for producers
and consumers If recent buying is a
criterion of their requirements.
Plates are more easily available than
ere other forms of steel in this district,
but heavy deliveries are delayed and
third quarter buyers are having diff
Guilty In placing their tonnages The
60 cent price is being superseded fast
by 1.70 cents and LIS cents, Pittsburgh.
fabrcatcrs reporting 1.70 cents as the
firm market minimum In contrast to
those figures. Ohio producers are quot
ing and obtaining 2 and even 2.25 cents,
base Pittsburgh, on certain plates Oc-
sionally tank. lettings are reported. the
.lnajority of inquiries being for miscel-
ianeous tanks involving up to zoo tons
each.
sheet Orders Heavy in All Grades.
Orders for sheets of all grades are
being received in volume by makers in
This district. The American Sheet and
Tin Plate Company has not announced
US third quarter price and possibly may
decide to employ with numerous re-
quests to book business for that
period and make price adjustments
Halter IL it be found necessary to
change present levels. Purchases of
. full finished automobile sheets and
.tonnages offered for third quarter
are particularly heavy and certain pro-
|ducers may have to allot tonnages.
I3lue annealed sheets are selling In lots
o. 1000 TO $500 tons to consumers and
5obbers Other sheets are moving in
larger quantities, black and galvanized
|heing particularly popular. Prices are
unchanged, quoting the maximum re-
Gently naugurated. as follows: Blue
snnealed, 2.75 cents; black, $50 cents
|galvanzed, 4.50 cents. Operations con-
tnue practically unchanged. about rs
TO so per cent. being the average, al
though the leading interest has been
q BILE to operate at slightly more than
80 per cent.
The tinplate market still has strong
tone and mills are not in a position to
-.
of the independent tinplate mills are
operating The leading interest oper-
ated this week so per cent. of its tin
mills. Some deliveries scheduled for
June. probably will go over till Jul%,
but in a general way mill order books
. will be clear soon for the second half
. Of the year. The regular Si.7j price
| for tinplate Is well maintained i'm sales
.heing made, but the market shows
strength i'm that various extras that
were being waived more or less are now
strictly enforced, and all concessions
| have disappeared. Independent tinplatc
makers are strong for advancing the
price, but the leading interest manifests
little concern, adhering to the S4.T5
Figure.
Buyers of merchant steel bars still
present attractive tonnages to the mills.
lana the latter are III lut uHtINldDlt pOsl-
| ton of having to turn many OF them
down because of inability to make
proper deliveries. Perhaps the major
proportion OF that proffered business is
| in lots of 1000 tons upward for ship
ment the third quarter. Mills are so
much concerned about making prompt
deliveries of business on books that they
.do not care to extend their commitments
beyond July /. not knowing what situa-
ton will be introduced by the coal strike
|subsequent TO that time. Many Of them
are having difficulty In making deliv-
cries of even moderate sized tonnages.
While 1.60 cents is being done on certain
small lots booked In some places 1.70
cents and even 1.75 cents, base Pitts
Ibureh. are being obtained.
sheet Bars Yield to BiIIets.
| Semi-fnished products, in order of
Importance from the standpoint of pres
lent Inquiries line up as follows: Re-
skelp. slabs and forging billets. The
situation. therefore is slightly changed.
sheet bars giving place to bllets A
| few small lots of 900 TO 500 tens of
|axi-inch rerolling billets have been dis
posed OF for s35. Pittsburgh. a middle
Interest has been offered an order for
., 500 tons of rerolling bilcts. but the
| price that the buyer is willing TO pay
lis too low to interest the middlema n
or any mill with which he might form
n connection. Apparently $35. Pitts
bprph nr YpifnpgtoVn ig the lowpst