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MARINE REVIEW. 9 Conditions Leading to Exports of Steel, Lake vessel owners who haye seen shipments of iron ore increase within the past ten or twelve years from less than 4,000,000 tons to full 10,000,000 tons, are confident of a similar increase in the develop- ment of this industry within another period even shorter than that which has elapsed since the first steel ore carriers of large capacity were built for the ore trade. This opinion is based largely on the increased use of steel at home in the various structural lines to which it is now applied, but more particularly on the prospects of develop- ing a foreign market for the American product. Within the past few months the sales of pig iron and steel products made on foreign account have been sufficient to cause a great deal of speculation as to the future of the export trade. An editorial on this subject in the current issue of the Iron Age is of a conservative and. reliable kind. Referring to the changed conditions that are fitting the leading man- ufacturers of this country for competition in foreign markets, the writer says: 'First of all is the tendency toward equalization of labor cost per unit of product. A great step in this direction was assured when mild steel supplanted puddled iron. This gave opportunities for economies in handling material in large quantities which we have thoroughly apart. Every year is lessening that disadvantage. The lowering of freights, too, is helping us to reach tidewater markets at lower and lower figures, and with a steady cheapening in the cost of building ocean-going vessels and of abundant capital to run them at low rates of interest, we shall resume our position as carriers on the high seas. Our principal rivals, the English iron makers, are steadily drifting into a more unfavorable position. In the days when it took three and four tons of coal to produce one ton of finished product the location of iron making plants near the fuel was natural, and the ore went to the coal. Now the tendency the world over is toward the ore, because improvements of manufacture have lessened the fuel con- sumption until the quantity required is little more than one ton of coal, converted into coke, per ton of steel, while the ore is a fixed quantity, say over two tons per ton of product. Since England must import the bulk of its ore from sources failing in some important re- spects, and since even its cost of fuel is steadily rising, its position is growing steadily more unfavorable. Germany has very cheap ore relatively near at hand, but the ore is very poor as compared. with our own. The coal is costly, but that is partly compensated for by the success in reducing the cost of coking to a minimum by utilizing the by-products. We believe that the greatest single reduction in the item ee Ne SINE A VIEW OF WHALEBACK VESSELS SHORTLY AFTER ARRIVAL AT THE HEAD OF THE LAKES ON THE OLOSE OF NAVIGaTION, 1896. poe puree: of. Today it is a fact that no steel plant can hope long to survive unless it runs at a rate of 1,000 tons per day. No rail mill remains long in the race unless it can turn out that quantity per day. No wire rod mill is efficient unless it comes close to a monthly product of 6,000 tons. The same is true of structural mills, plate mills and other rolling mill plants. Now this tendency is telling in our favor when considering our ability to meet foreign competitors. The reason is that we have at our doors our own market, the greatest in the civilized world. Our consumption is on a scale which permits a number of works of the maximum capacity to keep running in ordinary times. Another very important point which affects our capacity to produce cheaply in the future is the annihilation of dis- tance through a steady lowering of cost of hauling materials. Except in the southern district, the principal cost to our iron makers has been that of assembling materials. Every step in the improvement of rolling stock, in vessel service or in handling bulky freight lessens the disadvantages under which we have been suffering. "Our resources of ore and of fuel are unequaled anywhere in the world.. We can put ore, coal and coke on cars for shipment, of an exceptional quailty, at prices which the European nations can not rival. Our great drawback has been that they have been so far of cost which lies ahead for our own makers of iron will be in intro: ducing German methods of coking. : '"These are the grounds, which in our opinion, justify the convic- tion that at no very distant date this country will be able to perman- ently control a share of the world's markets in steel and its products. Asa matter of fact, a lowering in costs is in sight which will bring us very near to that point. But for the present it must be admitted that only the abnormal conditions existing on both sides of the Atlantic justify the export movement which has been in progress. These conditions will probably change pretty soon, and then we shall have less of it. But in the meantime we shall steadily develop until we reach the point when we have come into the world's market to stay. The day is not very far off." When Going to Pittsburgh take Pennsylvania No. 10, " The Flyer." Leaves Union station 8 a. m. daily, Euclid avenue 8:10.a. m.; arrives Pittsburgh 11:30a.m. Solid vestibuled .train, Pullman Buffet Parlor car at- tached to train. Apl 15 The Review has excellent photographs of lake ships.