Soviet Steel Supremacy?

"The U.S. steel industry is not competitive economically with the Soviet steel industry. We have yet to learn this the hard way, but one day we shall." So last week said Alfred S. Glossbrenner, president of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., sixth biggest U.S. steelmaker.

Speaking to a Cleveland meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute, Glossbrenner cited some evidence to support his stand: "Soviet production has tripled in the last ten years. Fifty-six million tons of steel were made in 1957. Sixty million tons are expected to be made this year. The Soviets this year will come within 25 million tons of matching our actual production."

When will U.S. steelmen learn "the hard way" that they cannot compete? Answered Glossbrenner: As soon as the Soviets have satisfied their own domestic demand for steel, start dumping cut-rate steel abroad, upset world markets as they did this year in aluminum and tin. Glossbrenner said that the U.S. can get competitive only by spurring workers' productivity. One way to do it, he advised, is for "strong" managers to hold the line on wages until workers become more productive, and to create "an overall attitude of discipline in the mills that strengthens the right of management to make and carry out management decisions."

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