Geneva to Big Steel

After pondering the bids submitted for the $190,000,000 Geneva Steel plant, the War Assets Administration last week decided to sell it to U.S. Steel Corp. Big Steel, which operated Geneva during the war, had offered to pay $47,500,000, spend another $18,600,000 to convert the plant to manufacture types of steel needed by steel-hungry West Coast industries (TIME, May 13). It has also promised to spend $25,000,000 for a new California fabricating plant.

WAA agreed with West Coast industrialists that selling to Big Steel offered "the highest possible degree of assurance for the continued operation of the plant." WAA brushed off the bid of Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp., saying that the proposed $2 per ton royalty to the U.S. would probably not cover amortization of the Government's investment.

C.F. & I. has not yet given up. It is trying to rally Colorado citizens to help fight its battle, though most Colorado officials favor Big Steel. C.F. & I.'s best hope is that the Department of Justice, which has the final word on Geneva, may not approve the sale to Big Steel. However, most steelmen thought that WAA would not have made the announcement if Justice had not informally approved. If it wanted Geneva operated by private industry with its own capital. Justice had no other choice. The University of Utah's Professor J. R. Mahoney, who has made the definitive study of the economics of Geneva, summed up: "If Department of Justice officials will look at the plain realities instead of legalistic theories they will promptly approve WAA's action."

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