Up Again?

Is the price of steel going up again? Last week some steelmen feared so. One small plant had already boosted the price $6 a ton for plate. Said one steelman gloomily: "If the price of scrap doesn't come down, the price of finished steel will have to go up." In Pittsburgh last week scrap jumped $5 a ton to $43, the highest in 30 years. Pittsburgh companies, frantically searching for scrap among dealers in other cities, heard them quote prices of $47 and up.

This was bad news for the U.S. economy. With steel mills humming at 97.1% of capacity, highest since June 1944, the industry was ready to chalk up a record peacetime production year. To keep the mills running at the present rate of 84,000,000 tons a year would require about 17,500,000 tons of scrap in the next six months.

But supplies were down to an estimated 4,500,000. And such measures as the cutting-up of the liner Normandie. (which was completed last week) had not eased the shortage.

To check a further rise in scrap prices, some of the larger steel companies stopped buying. By week's end the price had dropped to $40 a ton. But even that was considered too high by many of the mills. The buyers' strike continued.

Scrap dealers wondered how long the steel companies could hold out. In August, when scrap rose to $42, the steel companies, by refusing to buy, drove the price down to $38. This time they were in a poorer bargaining position. Traditionally, the industry stocks up on scrap in the fall, before the cold weather slows down collection and transportation.

In Philadelphia and Chicago last week, some small mills reported that they had only two weeks' scrap supply on hand. Some of the bigger companies were only a little better off. Whether or not steelmen would eventually be forced to pay higher prices, the shortage of scrap was so acute that a drop in steel production seemed inevitable.

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