The First Move

When the steel industry dropped the basing-point system (TIME, July 19), Big Steel's Ben Fairless began to worry about the fate of Pittsburgh. Because it normally makes more steel than local industries can use, he thought some of the steel plants would have to move away to find a market. But last week, it seemed likely that the market would come to Pittsburgh.

Detroit's Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co. (6,000 employees) bought a plant near Pittsburgh and planned to turn out 30% of its manufacturing there. The replacement of basing points by f.o.b. pricing had boosted the company's steel bill $9.20 a ton, and it would save money by being at Pittsburgh. Encouraged by the plant shift, the Pittsburgh Industrial Development Council began tootling its horn to attract other fugitives from freight charges. But Detroit, which uses twice as much steel as it produces, started a campaign to make more. Said. its board of commerce: "We have iron ore going right past our door. We have limestone . . . [All] we need is coal."

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