Evening star., 1941-09-24
Steel Order Bookings
Under Month Ago, bul
Equal Shipments
Little Material Expected
To Go for Non-EssentiuI
Uses in Near Future
By the Associated Press.

NEW YORK. Sept. 24.-Septer1-
Der steel orders booked by various
producers average 80 to 45 per cent
below the tonnages taken in August
but even this reduced volume of new
business equaled shipments, result
ing in no lowering of backlogs, Iron
Age said today in its weekly review.
An analysis of incoming business,
most of which is either directly or
indirectly for defense, suggests that
steel consumers requiring material
for non-essential uses can expect
little or no steel, at least for a
time" the review said. The volume
Of priority ratings issued by the o.
P. M. for steel uses indicates that
soon all orders will be rated ton
mage
Steel plates remain a problem
although shipyards. both naval and
private, have been for the most part
cleared of charges that they are
boarding material A check of pri-
vate yards on the East Coast showed
little piling up of material while the
Navy Department has sent repre-
sentatiyes on tour of plate mills to
speed production and rearrange
schedules permitting shipments to
yards where stocks are low.
Preference Difficulties.
Meanwhile. the heavy volume of
ALA preference ratings on such
items as plates and shapes has
pushed back delivery on other steel
orders with lower preference ratings
which, by a common sense yardstick,
are just as important. For example:
The o. P. NJ. has insisted that more
steel be used for freight car plates.
which have an AS rating. during
September and October than for
other plate requirements with a
/ higher rating. Such distribution
difficulties will have to be settled by
| the o. P. NJ.
While steel plants and many
hundreds of steel consumers are
/ straining for still higher production
/ in answer to pleas like that of Will
liam S. Knudsen, o. P. M. director
I general. for overtime work for all
/ the strike still seems to be regarded
as a luxury which the country car
+ afford even in a defense plant. Ur
/ to Tuesday of this week an OUTLAW
! SfT1Rp nf 9" n -
machinists, boilermakers and vel.
/ ders has caused full weeks
shutdown at Carnegie Illinois Stee
Corps Mcdonald Ohio bar anc
| sheet mills. Loss of production
which cannot be made up, because
the mills were previously working
at capacity, is estimated at 26,OOC
tons OF finished steel products.
Steel Rails Allocated.
Last week complete alloca tior
was made of approximately 100000
tons Of steel for October and No
yember delivery to the British. Oi
this amount approximately $4,000
/ tons was slabs, $4,000 tons billets
and about 10000 tons ingots. Since
| the British are not accepting
Bessemer steel ingots. the furnish
ing of open hearth steel ingots for
export will continue to affect pro-
duction of American bar mills.
Almost one million tons of steel
rails needed to replace vornout
trackage in 1912 have either been
ordered or allocated to various COM
panies. This tonnage represents
the greater portion of 1912 require
ments.
United States blast furnace con-
sumption of iron ore in August
reached a new record of 6393.2l5
gross tons. bringing total consump-
ton for 1941 through September !
to 48,66l,4l3 gross tons. an un-
| precedented high mark. Winter ore
reserves at United States furnaces
/ have now been built up to 81 1896. 1872
tons, compared with 27.333.265 tons
| a month earlier. Steel plant oper-
atlons this week are estimated by
the Iron Age at 97.5 per cent OF
capacity, up half point from LIST
weeks revised figure of 81 per cent"