Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-03
INCREASED STEEL u
BUYING PREDICTED
Iron Age Says Leading Pro-
Queer Is Preparing to
Advance Prices.
By the Associated Press.

by tine Associated Press.
NEW YORK, December 3.-Novem-
Der brought a further decline In pig
iron production, and, with another
month of low operations discounted be.
cause of the season, the attention Of
the iron and steel industry is focused
on expected improvement in January,
Iron Age will say tomorrow in its week
ly review Of the industry.
Following the recent move to sta.
Billie prices of bars, shapes and plates
at 100 cents Pittsburgh" the review
says, "a leading steel producer is pre-
pairing to announce an advance Of 81
ton to apply on first business. Mo-
tives for such action are to be found
in mounting costs, vanishing earnings
and belief that a stronger market
will bring out latent business. Similar
increases in prices were made during
periods Of depressed production in 1927
and 1922"
November Output.
November pig iron output was 1857
lot tons, compared with 2,164, 1853 tons
in october. The November daily aver
age was 62,237 tons. a decline of 1884
tons, or 1913 per cent, from daily
average Of 69,831 tons in october.
There was net loss of four blast fur
naceS in November. December / there
were LOT stacks in blast or 70 less
than on April /. at the beginning Of
the decline in furnace activity. In Ala
bama merchant stack and a Buffalo
steel works unit are scheduled to go
out this week, while an Ohio steel COM
pany blast furnace may soon be re-
lighted.
Current specifications for iron and
steel are adversely affected by the APP
preaching holiday and inventory pc
Rod" the review continues, "and steel
ingot production, increasingly irregu-
lar, Is now estimated at 80 per cent,
compared with Al per cent a week ago.
Low prices of pig iron have brought
out further purchases for the first
quarter, with recent activity great
est In the Chicago district, where one
contract for 10000 tons and sew
eral for 1000 and 5000 tons were
closed.
Pig iron prices have undergone no
further change except in the Philadel-
phia district, where the market Is on
another so cents ton.
Relatively little forward buying has
thus far developed in finished STEEL al
though increasing interest is being
shown in first quarter contracts. notably
by the automobile industry. Motor car
output, owing to suspensions for inven-
tory purposes by many plants in the
latter half of December, will probably
dip to q new low for the year, but with
improvement expected in the near year,
mills are counting on a fair volume Of
automotive steel orders for January
shipment" ,
Railroad Buying.
Railroad buying, although showing
signs of revival, continues to lag far be-
hind the volume Of q year ago, the
Review says, and rail mill operators are
slowly increasing at Pittsburgh and
Chicago, with the Chicago rate now MP
to 80 per cent, compared with IS per
cent q week ago.
New projects requiring fabricated
structural steel totaling 1900 tons and
awards Of 10000 tons are the smallest
since September, Iron Age says.
Though finished steel prices, accord
ing to the Iron Age composite, have re-
manned at an average of 2135 cents O
pound for the eighth consecutive week,
raw material prices continue to weaken,
pig iron declining to $16.O2, from $16.l1
week ago, and heavy melting scrap
dropping to SLAP, from $11.58 last
week.