Frozen at the Low

The steel industry was in a production slump and fighting bitterly to keep it from getting worse. Its last week's output of 1,553,684 tons was the lowest for any nonholiday period since April 28, 1941. Total production loss since the week of Jan. 13, when the slump started, has been over 500,000 tons.

The industry knew all about the reasons for the slump. They were as obvious as a blast furnace: shortages of manpower, fuel and scrap, and a surplus of new war orders that upset production schedules. There was a new one, too: the weather (see U.S. AT WAR).

Manpower. The industry had 600,000 workers during the early part of 1944. Now its payrolls were down to 400,000 and the mills were in dire need of furnace repairmen and common laborers. There was bad news ahead in the skilled-trades brackets too: 60,000 of the industry's best technical workers between the ages of 26 and 29 were up for the draft this year.

Fuel. Steelmen could see their coal stocks dwindling too: they were down to a 15-day supply against a normal six weeks. Even U.S. Steel Corp., which usually gets all the coal it needs from its own mines, last week was scouring outside sources.

In the Pittsburgh area, shortage of natural gas struck the steel mills a heavier blow. When the city curtailed industries to keep homes warm, U.S. Steel, with 44 open-hearth furnaces already shut down, was forced to shut down six more.

Looking ahead, steelmen could see the brooding figure of John L. Lewis, and they urged that the biennial soft-coal wage pact discussions start now instead of awaiting March 1, the date now set. The United Mine Workers bided their time.

Scrap. Consumers' inventories of scrap were less than four million tons, nearly as low as in late 1941, when many furnaces went down for lack of scrap.

Orders. Steel men hustled to keep track of urgent war orders which flooded in. Steel allocations under the "spot authorization" plan, never large, were curtailed. The landing-mat program, once thought finished, was reinstated, calling for 350,000 tons of sheet steel this year. The maritime and Navy program was also boosted again, just when the War Production Board had expected it to dwindle. Like most people in the cold Northeast, steelmen prayed for warmer weather, predicted they could up operating rates with the temperature.

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