Evening star., 1940-08-02
Independents 10 Ask
Further Restrictions
On Scrap Steel
Lukens Co. President
Says Present Export Ban
Cannot Be Enforced
BY the Associated Press.


NEW YORK. Aug. 2.-Federal
Government restrictions on further
sales abroad of all kinds of scrap
steel will be asked of the admins
tratioh within the next few days by
independent manufacturers of iron
and stee, headed by Robert w. VOL
colt, president of Lukens Steel Co.,
Coatesville, Pa.
The basis for the plea, it was
learned, is that the steelmakers esti-
mate present stocks of scrap in the
United States "are equivalent to
only about six weeks consumption
by the steel industry Japan, they
said, continues to be the biggest for
eign buyer of American scrap.
OF this available scrap, essential
to the rapid manufacture of high
grade steel suitable for armament
purposes, there was said to be con-
centrated in the East and around
Chicago only sufficient stocks for
four to five weeks consumption.
Wants No. 2 Included.
Mr. Wolcott, here for a series of
conferences before going to Wash
ington, said the recent presidential
ban on expectation of No. grade
scrap steel except by specific license,
had done nothing to relieve the
dearth of scrap since the ban did
not include the lighter, out just as
useful. No. 2 grade.
No. ! consists of structural steel,
plates from ships and other heavy
steels. No. 2 is made up of automo-
bile parts, fences, lockers, roofing
and other steel materials. Inclusion
of sufficient percentage of No. 2
scrap in No. consignment grades
the whole shipment as No. 2 scrap.
"No explanation was given why
No. 2 scrap was excluded from the
license ruling" said Mr.. Wolcott.
such exclusion pulls the teeth from
the ruling because only one-quarter
to one-third of total scrap exports
have been of the No. / grade Most
of the large exports of scrap to
Japan IN rr~ent years have been of
No. 2 grade.
Impossible of Enforcement.
1T will be impractical if not i'm
possible to enforce license ruling
which applies only to No. l. 1t is
certain that a great deal of No. l
scrap could be labeled No. 2 and
slipped through the ports as ex-
ports"
The steelmaker said his company
and others he represents use around
80 per cent scrap in their manufac-
ture of steel, the remaining 20 per
cent being made up of pig iron, USE
full mainly for the carbon control
of the blast furnaces. He said in
some cases new steel is made en-
tirely from scrap without the use
of any pig iron.
Mr.. Wolcott asserted the making
of steel entirely from pig iron
although possible for big corpora
tions which own their own iron
mines, is a more costly and slower
process than when scrap is used.
Institute Figures.
Iron g. Steel Institute figures show
that in the first six months of this
year, total exports of scrap from
the United States reached 1,469 ,54s
tons, of which All 1888 went to Japan
In the like 1889 period, total exports
were 1.776,015 tons, of which 1904,
524 went to Japan.
AS of March 81, according tc
statistics from the same source, the
scrap steel stock of the United States
was 4644,505 tons, a figure which,
since has likely been considerably
reduced.
Concerning the estimate of only
six weeks scrap supply being avail
able. Mr.. Wolcott said: This is an
average for the country. 1t means
| that in Texas and Oklahoma, for
| instance, stocks of scrap may be
equivalent to IA weeks supply from
that area, while in the East, stocks
are equivalent, it is estimated, to
about only four to five weeks con-
sumption"