Evening star., 1922-12-25
SPLENDID OUTLOOK
IN STEEL INDUSTRY
Present Heavy Production
Assured at Least for First
Quarter of New Year.
COTTON AND WHEAT GAIN
Industrial Review Shows Plenty of
Soft Coal on Hand-1923
Full Of Promise.
By the Associa ted Press.

By the Associa ted Press
NEW YORK, December 25.-While
the holiday season has served to
quiet the chief financial markets ap-
preciably during the past week. it
has brought distinctly active retail
trade and has had remarkably little
| checking effect on the major indus
tries. Thus steel production con-
tinues to approximate so per cent OF
capacity. and trade reports state that
| the year end closing down of plants
| will be for briefer periods than
usually Is the case.
Most of the producers will reopen
| their plants Tuesday rather than wait
the week which more commonly
elapses before operations are resumed.
Steel In Strong Position.
Steel makers are confident. further
more, that their present satisfactory
] scale of operations will be maintained
, throughout the first quarter OF the
new year Order books are fairly
! well filed and prices of finished
| products remain firm. Even pig iron
| prices. which have been receding ever
since the coal shortage began to be
! relieved, have turned upward, CIR
| cum stance which suggests that the
| bottom of this market. for which both
| buyers and sellers have been reaching
| for number of weeks. has been
| reached. One factor in hardening the
| pig iron market is a stiffening in coke
prices, which. in turn, is due TO a
| quickened demand for soft coal with
the advent of cold weather.
Enough Coal for Industry.
Railroad carloading meanwhile con-
/ tinues to hold up remarkably Well,
although the normal seasonal slack
ening is making itself felt. Loadings
! for the week ended December ag-
gregated 10000 cars. which is l1s,0OO
| cars more than were loaded in the
! corresponding week year ago and
| $1,000 cars more than in the same
week in 1877, when the railroads were
| setting a record for the traffic move
! Inent Bituminous coal production is
being maintaipsd at the rate OF H.
100000 tons week. and the amount
| wholly adequate to all reasonable
, needs.
Cotton and Wheat Go Up.
The commodity prices have shown
distinct strength during the past
week Both cotton and wheat at
tanned new high levels for the year.
| Insistent buying of the more distant
futures carried May up to approx
mately 26l. cents. 1t apparently was
i bdSeQ on Ine lVed ludl a AV'opo'''S
bale crop and the present rate of con-
sumption. which is high. mean a
{; shortage before new cotton can be
| obtained from another crop. A cen
sus bureau report placed the amount
| of cotton ginned to December 13, at
F.; 9.493, 900 bales and this was taken as
/. confirming prevalent views as to the
final yield
| Higher Wheat Estimates.
| Influences were mixed in the wheat
market and it seems probable that
the firmness in prices was due largely
ito general optimism. Thus the De-
ipartment of Agriculture revised its
| estimates for the 1922 crop upward,
adding some 45.O00.0O0 bushels. Its
first report on the new winter wheat
crop placed the acreage at slightly
moro than 100000 acres and the
condition at 79.5 per cent. AS COM
pared with the figures for the pre-
vious crop. acreage is reduced about
3 per cent and condition increased
by a like amount. This first esti-
mate is only. of course. suggestive.
! AS the holidays approached the alb
sence of any pressure to liquidate
was noticeable in the several mar
kets Technical conditions appar-
entity had been greatly improved dur
ing the past two months. Most OBJ
servers are looking forward to the
new year in a cheerful mood.