Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-11
j. S. STEEL REPORT
IS WELL RECEIVED
Street Pleasantly Surprised
at Untitled Tonnage Fig
ureS for June.
BY PRESTON s. KRECKER.

SpttlSl DiSDabCh 10 The Star.
NEW YORK, July differentiation
that the untitled tonnage Of the United
States Steel Corporation decreased but
9l.l63 tons last month comes as
pleasant surprise to Wall Street, which
had guessed that the decrease would
prove substantially larger.
The figures indicate that new bust
ness has been coming in at better rate
than popularity supposed and that pes
slmism may have been somewhat over
done. although there is no DENYING that
the steel industry is in the midst of
stamp which Is accentuated this month
oy the holidays and by shutdowns of
industrial plants for inventory taking
fortunately for steel masters, in
creased demand for steel from a new
source is sustaining the industry and
keeping operations at a higher rate
IMAM otherwlSe would have been the
case. That new source of steel demand
is the steel pipe industry. 1t has grown
by the proverbial leaps and bounds this
sight.
Pipe Mills Are Active.
Trade papers report that pipe mills
are operating at 80 to 90 per cent of
capacity, rate higher than that of any
other department of the industry and
comparing with Sc per cent for the in
duStry as whole. Substantial untitled
orders for steel pipe are one OF the
packlogS upon which the industry is
counting to tide it over the depression
III other steel lines and hold production
up until general improvement takes
place.
The great demand for steel pipe in
turn Is reflection of a rapidly grow
ing natural gas industry. In the ap-
gregate several thousand miles of natu-
raj gas pipe lines are projected at a.
cost of many millions of dollars to sup
ply an increasingly popular source of
energy to industrial centers of the
Middle West and the South. Electrical
~ welded steel pipe, manufactured by
a recently discovered process. is in de-
mand because it is not only cheaper
tnan the old lapweld pipe, but is
stronger and is Theoretically sealed
against leakage.
Another use for steel pipe is in the
transportation of gasoline. AS vet but
little gasoline is shipped by pipe line
because of its extreme volatility, but
electrically welded pipe seems to have
solved that problem, and the day is
approaching when it will be quite a
common practice to transport gasoline
by pipe lines much as oil has been
shipped for many years.
Preparing for Demand.
Steel mills have foreseen this big
growth of the steel pipe industry and
have been prepared for it. The Re-
| public Steel Corporation this Spring
completed one of the finest steel pima
mills in the country at a cost of So
600 1000. The Youngstown Sheet a
luoe Co. has announced plans to en-
| large its pipe capacity at a cost of
| S2,0O0,000. 1t is evident that pipe
makers expect good business for a long
time to come.
Not only in steel pipe capacity. but
| In other lines, the steel industry a
expanding. Taking the steel Industry
| as a whole, it is estimated that con.
struction plans call for total addi-
| tlonal matchmaking capacity of about
100000 tons. That proposed increase
IN the steel capacity of the United
states IS alone greater than the entire
steei-making capacity of many foreign
countries. Yet it is being added to An
industry which already has by far the
largest capacity of any nation on the
globe. '-'s
BY their great expansion plans.
American steelmakers signify their
confidence in the future more eloquent
~ than mere words could express it.