Evening star., 1938-03-04
AUTO CHIEFS MAP
USED-CAR DRIVE
Campaign Due Next Week,
Sales Already Show
Improvement.
By !. G. DONLEY,
Epecial Dispatch to The Star.

epec1tl DlSpaIcD 10 Inc StaT.
NEW YORK, March 4.-Next week
the automobile industry will put on
its big drive to break the used-car
jam. According to current reports,
sales of new and used cars are al
ready showing improvement. aided by
an apparent trend toward milder
weather and an early spring. Over
the next few weeks the weather will
be big factor in determining the
demand for automobiles throughout
this section of the country, where the
ffch to get out and go places is gov
erned by the robins return.
Since the motor industry is its big
gest customer, the steel industry is
casting hopeful glances Detroitward.
The Iron Age says that tangible evi-
dence supporting hope for spring
recovery in steel demand is the recall
of 10000 idle automobile workers,
and plans by some automobile makers,
such as Plymouth, to lift operating
schedules from three days at present
to four days a week
Pittsburgh Watched.
And. because steel ineot output has
long been regarded as barometric in
respect to general business activity,
the business world pretty generally
has its eyes on Pittsburgh and other
steel-producine centers these days.
This week, four out of nine principal
production districts moved production
schedules up a notch or so Ia response
to improved demand.
One of the leading interests in the
steel industry tells this writer that
decent revival is in the making, and
the hope is that it will come slowly
rather than a. a sudden squirt, rising
quickly and waning in the same fash
ion. The feeling is that inventories
have been worked down very well,
and that hand-to-mouth buying. long
continued has damned up certain
volume of demand, which ultimately
must find expression in buying orders
The small amount Of buying that
the railroads are doing under their
current difficult conditions is taken
to indicate their pressing need, which
will be relieved if generous rate in
creases are granted. 1t is not so
much that the railroads can't get
along with the equipment they have
but that the new equipment, made
of high tensile steelS, is so much more
efficient. Modern freight Car weights
have been almost cut in half, making
for a greater carrying load and saw
ing in fuel coSts-in other words.
technical obsolescence of outdated
equipment.
Weight Saving Vital.
With saving of several tons in
weight per freight car. new equip
ment becomes almost a mandatory
investment because it guarantees a
dollars-and-cents return. And. from
the management angle, the same rea-
soning applies to new steramlined
passenger train equipment. which is
effectively meeting bus and airline
competition.
Old equipment is serviceable. but it
Is outmoded and. therefore, busi-
ness liability from the viewpoint of
the passenger traffic manager.
One of the reasons why the steel
industry expects the automobile de-
mand for steel to tone up in the next
few weeks is purely seasonal. It is
pointed out that II every year of the
past 1o-a period covering the deep
depression-paSSenger car production
has turned upward in the spring
While there is uSed-car glut, new
cars in dealers hands are down to
comparatively low levels for this time
OF year.
Such increase III demand for steel
as has already put n an appearance
falls mainly under the miscellaneous"
Classification. That is encouraging
for tTo reasonS-it means that i'm
provement IS appearing in widely
varying lines. and it concerns di-
vision of steel consumption which
accounts for nearly IS per cent of
annual use
tCopyright 1881