Steel Peak?

News in the steel industry has improved so rapidly of late that, in the Wall Street phrase, "all the good news is out." The unfilled orders of the U. S. Steel Corporation on Jan. 31 were 5,037,323 tons, a jump of 220,647 tons over forward business on Dec. 31, and the largest amount since February, 1924. The Corporation is working at about 95% capacity. Price advances have occurred in bars, shapes, plates, sheets, and wire products.

Over half of the country's steel output is absorbed by the railroads, the automobile companies and the construction industry. While no slump is anticipated in any of these directions, at the same time it is not expected by most people that buying from any of these three sources will prove as heavy this year as in 1923 or 1924. The railroads were in sufficiently good physical shape last year to handle record traffic with about 10% surplus capacity unused. Automobile output is not commonly expected to exceed this year the records of the two previous years. Finally, construction also seems to be showing a sagging tendency in volume of output.

The question consequently rises, Where is the purchasing that can maintain the present rate of steel production? In both 1923 and 1924, production reached tremendous volume in the early part of the year, only to decline severely during the latter half. Is 1925 to see a recurrence of this now familiar annual production cycle in steel?