Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-01
CONDITIONS SOUND
IN STEEL INDUSTRY
New Processes and Equip
ment Increase Profit Mar
gins in the Business.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, September 1.-THE
steel industry is in the strongest posi-
ton it has occupied since the wal
years. This is due not to present or
ders or immediate prospects, but to in
creased margins of profit resulting
from new equipment and new
processes.
Millions already have been spent
to install these processes and many
more millions will be spent in coming
years. The steel manufacturers not
only expect to get back every nickel
with added rofft, but have already be
gun to do so through reduced costs OF
manufacture.
Despite the fact that steel mills are
now operating at low percentages of
normal capacity, more steel is being
made than ever before. for there are
more units in the industry, and each
Is producing more tonnage than ever.
Production of iron and steel is sc
per cent greater than in 1918. al
though population has increased only
Is per cent in that time.
Motorizing One Plant.
The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.
third largest independent. is spending
$10,000,000 in motorizing its Campbell,
Ohio, plant. This is in addition TO
about $50, 900, 900 already expended on
that unit. When the work is done no
more steel will be produced there than
at present, but what is made will be
turned out at a tremendous saving
under present costs through reduction
of labor. fuel and maintenance. Under
the proposed system the company will
use blast furnace gas, heretofore a
waste product. to generate steam to
run its motors.
As q result OF the success the A. NJ.
Flyers Co. has had with the Ashton
process of refining iron synthetical-
ly, it is believed this, method of pro-
ducing wrought iron will spread rap
Idly. The wrought iron turned out
at the company'S Warren plant is
said to have all the qualities and char.
acteristics of manipulated iron, but
Is produced at a tremendous saving.
as compared with the costs of the
older method. The Byers Co. is using
the product in the making of wrought
iron pipe
A new method of sheet making now
Is emerging from the experimental
stage. This is the continuous sheet
mill and the principle is being. adopted
throughout this department of the in
dustry. This process, however, has
not yet been introduced in the Ma.
honing Valley district, the worlds
greatest sheet center. although it is
said to have proved itself elsewhere.
Continuous Steel Mills.
The Weirton Steel Co., at Weirton,
w. Va, has just started up a plant
OF this sort and has cut down mate
rally on man power. The American
Rolling Mill Co. is operating a con.
tinuous sheet mill at Ashland, XIV,
and has just authorized the construc-
ton of another similar plant, The
American Steel & Wire Co. has fol.
lowed suit at it's Cuyahoga plant. At
Ashland the American Rolling Mill
Co. now uses 20 men to operate its
continuous sheet mill on an eight.hour
shift. To produce an equivalent
amount of sheets under old plant con.
ditions would have required 40 hot
mill crews, totaling $50 men on each
eight-hour shift.
The term back log" meaning the
volume of untitled orders, has ceased
to have any real significance in the
steel industry in these days of small
orders frequently repeated Makers
no longer pile up huge reserve stocks
during the slack season to carry over
the period Of brisk demand. New
equipment and new processes make it
possible to turn out an order almost
as soon as it has been received 1t is
Tor these reasons that steel men say
the industry is now on the. soundest
basis in its history.