Down Payment

U.S. industry last week began adding up the bill against the nation's economy for the month-long coal strike. Items:

P: Members of John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers lost more than $100,000,000 in wages.

P: The steel industry suffered a production loss estimated at 900,000 tons of ingots (equal to about 675,000 tons of finished steel). With about one-third of the 400,000 soft-coal miners still out, awaiting the court decision on John L. Lewis (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), Iron Age estimated that the loss will reach 1,400,000 tons before normal production could possibly be resumed.

P: General Motors announced that it would lay off some 200,000 workers--more than half its total force--for at least a week, because of steel and pig-iron shortages. The motor industry, Ward's Automotive Reports said, would make about 265,000 fewer cars and trucks this quarter than expected.

To steelmen, these losses were only a down payment. Gambling on a quick end to the strike, they had used most of their coal reserves to keep production as close to normal as possible. They would hardly be able to rebuild the reserves by June 30, when the miners' contract expires and another strike is expected. The next one, if it comes, would force a quick and sharp cut in steel production.

The new pinch in steel, plus the added demand from EGA, had already put new life in the dying grey market. To spread the steel, some companies planned to cut customers' quotas under the industry's present voluntary rationing, system. Others, convinced that this would not do the job, feared a system of Government allocations by fall.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.