Evening star., 1941-04-16
Steel Wage Increases
Expected 10 Bring
Some Price Advances
Rails and Tin Plate
Moy Be Untouched,
Iron Age Says
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, April 16.-Wage in
creases granted to steel workers
may be followed by price advances
on some steel products to offset the
higher direct and indirect labor
COSTS" Iron Age magazine said today
in its weekly survey.
"If there are to be price ad-
vances," it reported, products which
may be left untouched are rails and
tin plate, both of which are sold
on long-term arrangements. There
have been some price adjustments
within the past week, notably on
galvanized products, in which the
zinc shortage is factor Galvanized
pipe is up $6 ton and the extra
on galvanized nails has been raised
IS cents per 100 pounds
"On the basis of last years earn
ings, which for the entire industry
were about $500 ,OOO,0 900, some of the
higher cost producers will barely
break even with the added labor
costs, while the fully integrated and
lower cost producers will show great
reduction of profits unless there are
compensating price increases.
while a steel strike has been
averted by the wage increases. the
outlook of uninterrupted production
is impaired by the continuance of
the shutdown of bituminous coal
mines.
Ingot Production OFF.
'Ingot prodffuction has suffered
a setback in the Pittsburgh district
as result of the coke situation.
The rate there is off points to 9s
per cent. At Chicago, however. a
new high of 102 per cent was at
tanned. Ford steel furnaces will re-
sumo at midweek after the strike at
that plant.
Notwithstanding that some steel
companies can take very little addi-
tional business for delivery this year
and that some are declining to take
business for 1912. new bookings are
running ahead of the March ton
mage, which was a record-breaker
for many producers.
In addition to an increasing vol
ume OF defense business, which il
displacing some commercial steel
tonnage, railroad equipment buying
has increased sharply, totaling $500
cars and 81 locomotives, and tir
plate business is running at a rate
which is expected to exceed that OF
last year by 20 per cent.
1T appears that the crest of the
demand for fabricated structural
steel for defense plants may have
been passed, but in all other de-
partments of steel business the VOL
ume is unabated or upward. Amont
new defense projects is an airplane
bomber assembly plant at Tulsa
Okla, which calls for $4,000 tons OF
structural steel"
Tighter u. s. Control Seen.
Iron Age said that tighter Gov
eminent control over industry, par
ticularly prices. is foreshadowed b.
the creation of the Office of Price
Administration and Civilian Supply
which has been invested by Presi- =
dent Roosevelt with broader powers
than existed under the Price Admin
istration of the National Defense
Advisory Commission, which 1t
supersedes.
The Price Administration, it added
has ameliorated the situation oi
scrap contracts by extending the
time limit for their completion tc
May 10 and may be called upon tc
iron out some disparities in prices
as between districts. The British
want $4,000 tons of steel scrap fol
May shipment and may encounter
difficulty in getting it because the
formula for export prices does not
permit high enough offers to COM
pete with domestic mills near sea-
board.
The Iron Age scrap composite was
unchanged at $l9.17.