Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-06
PRICES FOR STEEL
APPEAR UNCERTAIN
Sellers of Sheets in Keen
Competition for Business.
Strips Rise Cancelled.
Special Dispatch to The star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
PITTSBURGH, April 6--As 1t Is
not expected that the output of steel
will vary much from the present rate
in the next few months, or until late
in the year. increasing interest is being
taken in prices.
Wire mills marked up their asking
prices 81 ton last month. other
wise products on which there were
profits have been holding well, with
some even in line for advances in
realized prices. while products turned
out at loss have been merely holding
their own, or have actually declined,
as is the case with sheets. The ad-
vance in wire so far has not had q
crucial test, as the large and close
buyers still have deliveries coming to
them on old engagements. The real
test will come when they have to give
new orders
Bars. plates and shapes were sta
bilized" early in December at LOCO
Pittsburgh, the corresponding Chicago
district price being. l.70c. Then an adj
vance of 81 ton to 1850 and 1.75c,
respectively, was announced to be eff
tective on January l. For April
there was further rise in formal prices
TO l.70c and 1.80c. respectively.
The first upturn was not taken seri-
Ouolys Dub WIFI JIe SeCOIlQ move nOIQeTS
Of contracts at 100 cents, made tech
nically for the first quarter OF the year,
began to specify more freely. Accord
ing to custom, contracts for the second
quarter would have been made at IS
cents, but it does not appear that many
were let, and the trade at large does
not regard the market, now that April
has been entered, as being above 1.65
cents
Chicago price Rise"
The Chicago market, after having
made its first price at Its cents, re-
verted to a range OF ITO to Its cents.
In this lay the explanation of reports
last month that the Pittsburgh mills
were about to advance 81 a ton and
the Chicago mills 50 ton. The lat
ter had to make their first advance
again.
In plates and shapes, there Is much
more interest in the concessions made
on specific lots of steel for large fabri.
Gated structural steel jobs than in the
ordinary openly quoted market Some
persons have asked what the price was
on the $4,000 tons for Radio City in
New York. Last year concessions were
not infrequently abnormally large, and
one Of the ambitions OF the mills was to
reduce these concessions to the usual
proportions. There Is no information
as to their success.
The tonnage of plates and shapes
that moves in this way IS greater than
the total of the small lots that conform
to the openly quoted market. Counting
out the steel for Radio City end for
the Pennsylvania Railroads electrifica-
ton plan, totaling a quarter million
two or three years, the flow Of fabri-
Gated structural steel contracts has
been decidedly lighter in the last six
or seven months than formerly.
Resist Rise in Sheets.
In the case of strips, profitless COM
modify, an attempt was made to adj
the year, but this was abandoned when
resistance was encountered. One ex-
PLANTATION given was that the move was
intended really to preserve the old
prices, since 1t would be less difficult to
prevent the market from going below
the cost line than to lift it even by
small amounts after it had slipped.
1t is admitted now that sellers Of
sheets realize that there is in progress
test to see who shall survive, although
1t was not invited by any producer or
class Of producers. In 1928 and 1929
data for 1880 are not available yet-the
United States Steel Corporation did not
produce more than IS per cent of the
sheet made in the industry, whereas In
both years 1t turned out 40 per cent Of
all the steel ingots. The Bethlehem
Steel Corporation Is only a small pro-
Queer Nof sheets. The Republic Steel
Corporation and the Youngstown Sheet
& Tube Co are both large producers,
but there are many small producers,
not a few of which buy their semi
finished steel, and 1t Is trade talk that
these mills frequently make the lowest
prices.