Big Bite

The National Production Authority, which for some time has been nibbling at the civilian use of various scarce materials, last week took the biggest bite yet. It ordered a 15% cut in non-defense copper for the first two months of 1951, and a 20% cut for March. Automen said the cut would mean a 10% slash in auto production in next year's first quarter because there was no practical substitute for copper in auto radiators.

NPA also slashed the civilian use of zinc by 20% and nickel by 35% for the first quarter of next year, and chopped in half this month's civilian allotment of cobalt, taking it away from the television manufacturers and giving it to the jet-engine and steel makers.

Even without the cobalt cut, TV men were having their troubles. Because of shortages of copper wire, condensers and other parts, many of them sliced production last week anywhere from 10% to 40%, and expected output to fall 50% by next spring. With costs rising, TV sets were expected to cost from 10% to 25% more by then.

But there were prospects of easing the shortage of aluminum. The Aluminum Corp. of America, Reynolds Metals and Henry Kaiser announced that they would expand their capacity by 320,000 tons, raising the aluminum industry's overall capacity by more than 50%. However, the new plants would not be in operation for another two years or more.

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