Evening star., 1924-10-18
STEEL TRADE HURT |
BYLULL IN ORDERS
New Price System Not Yet
Perfected-|ndependent
Concerns Worried.
BY }. c. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, October 18.-The steel
industry today is in the position of
an automobile stopped by a lowered
grade crossing gate. 1t is not moving
forward, but the engine is running
and those in close touch with the sit
uation believe the bar to progress
will be lifted shortly. There is every
reason to believe that consumers in
various sections have been holding
back orders 10 days or two weeks to
determine just how the abolition of
the "PittsburSh plus" basis of sales is
going to affect them.
1t is felt. however that these orders
must come into the market in the
near future. Buyers of steel products
in general have followed the policy of
buying only for Immediate shipment.
a cessation of buying now must Sc
riously affect their stocks, for manu-
factured articles in which steel is used
are moving into consumption at an
unprecedented rate.
Smaller Concerns Worried.
Some of the independent steel
manufacturers who have plants only
in the Pittsburgh territory feel that
the abolition of the Pittsburgh plus
basis of sales has mitigated against
them and in favor of the leading in
terest which has plants in many sec
tions. They are making desperate
efforts to hold Western customers.
The Jones & I.aughlin Steel Corpo-
ration and the Pittsburgh Steel Co,
for example. are meeting the new
Chicago delivered prices on wire
products. This means these Pitts
burgh mills are absorbing a freight
differential of $3.50 ton as COM
pared with manufacturers with mills
in the Chicago district. Many steel
men believe this indicates the inde-
pcndents will build Western plants in
the near future and hope to hold
their old customers in the meantime
Similar policy has prevailed in the
cases of other mills in the Pittsburgh,
Wheeling and valley districts, but
whether these makers will continue
indefinitely to absorb the extra
freight charges to meet the delivered
prices in the West, is uncertain.
Barge Boom Seen.
1t is evident that it will continue
long enough, however. to materially
increase the use of river transporta-
ton. With freight rates a domnan mt
factor in steel selling, manufacturers
in the Pennsylvania and West Vir-
ginia districts will use barges more
than ever before. The Ohio River is
now navigable for such craft only
about eight months of the year, but
within a short time every dam and
improvement necessary to make il all
aI-year-round route will have been
started.
In the meantime Pittsburgh is
taking full advantage of the natural
advantages which that section Dos
sesses to equaliZe the advantage OF
Western mills in the latter territory
Chief of these are the extensive
coking coal deposits in Pennsylvania
and West Virginia and the cheap
river transportation of such fuel
from mine and oven to mill
To illustrate how large a factor the
latter is, the net cost of TRANSPORTING
ton of coke from Pittsburgh to a
plant on the lower Ohio River by
privately owned barges is Is cents a
ton. which compares with a freight
tariff of $3.50 a ton on the railroads
between the same points.
Big Order Helps Plant.
Increased tonnage is expected at
the Farrell and New Castle works of
the American Sheet and Tin Plate
Company as result of recent
order for 1900 900 boxes of tin plate
from the American Can Company
Tin plate will be rolled the remainder
of the year for shipment to Western
points and to Hawaii. The order will
also benefit the Farrell works of the
Carnegie Steel Company, which will
roll the tin bar for the tin mill.
The increase in employment in both
mines and steel mills in Pennsylvania
has been more extensive than even in
the Chicago district in the last few
weeks.