Evening star., 1950-09-08
Price Rises Continue
On Finished Goods
And Raw Materials
By Sam Dawson
Associated Press Financial Writer

pt Som Dawson
Assoeioted Press Financial Writer
NEW YORK, Sept. 8.-Prices
Of industrial raw materials and
finished goods continue to push
higher this week. Some hit or
passed previous postwar highs.
The price increases will affect
the cost of making the clothes
you wear, the car you drive, the
home appliances you want to buy.
They will even raise the cost Of
handling. processing and packag-
ing the food you eat.
In the last two days price mixes
have been announced on worsted
cloth, zinc. copper products, tai
low and grease, steel scrap, tires
and tubes, caustic soda, rayon Wis
cose yarn, ethyl anti-knock FOR
gasoline, floor coverings, roller
bearings and rock bits.
Nearing ALL Time High.
The wholesale commodity price
level, the Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics reports, is approaching the
all-time high held for a time in
the summer of 1948. In fact. the
index of commodities other than
farm products and foods has al
ready gone beyond that peak to
set a new postwar mark. thanks
to the big push given it by ad-
vancing prices of building ma
terials.
Food prices may ease as the
harvest is garnered, but the
march of industrial products to
higher levels is likely to be main
tanned, as the cost of raw ma
terials and higher wages is passed
along.
Zinc is 21a cents a pound higher
this morning than it was yester-
day morning. It's back to the
171a cents postwar peak it held
from November. 1948. to March,
1949. 1t has almost doubled since
June, 1949, when it touched the
postwar low of 9 cents a pound.
Industrial Demand Increases.
Swelling industrial demand for
zinc and growing shortages have
led Amer. users to pay around
18 cents pound for the metal in
foreign markets recently. The
domestic hike followed. Zinc gall
vanizes the steel in demand for
industrial and farm buildings,
and it goes into countless ap-
pliances used to furnish the rec
ord number of homes going up.
Zinc shipments are running we'll
ahead of last years monthly av-
erage.
Copper shortages have sent the
price of most producers UP to 24h
cents pound. a postwar high,
and advanced the price of brass
products. Some copper and brass
mills report they are cutting back
production because they can't find
enough of the metal, which is also
eagerly sought by the Government
for stockpiling against war.
Steel Scrap Higher.
Steel mills are paying more TO,
No. 2 grades of steel scrap, al.
though the price of No. SCRAP
still holds.
Rubber companies are advanc-
ing the price of tires and tuoes
which auto makers must buy to
outfit the car they sell you. Price
hikes of 10 to 1914 per cent are
being added to boosts of 8 to 1914
per cent ordered in the middle of
July. The price of the replace
ment tires you buy for your cld
car has already gone up in a
series of increases in July and
August.
American Woolen Co., spurred
by the so per cent increase in
the price of Australian wool, is
raising the price of mems wcar
worsted fabrics for the third time
since June /. The increases to-
tai 80 cents to 81 a yard. Suit
makers, who will have to pay these
new prices for fabrics next spring,
will announce their own new prices
soon.
Even the cost of using the air
is going up. On the heels of the
increase in advertising rates in
many magazines, New York tels-
vision station announces today
that commercial advertising rates
are going up 10 per cent. This
will raise the base evening hour
rate from $4,000 to $4,000.