. Hardware merchandising March-June 1919. id than they need be,in the judgment of many observerswho are not steel producers, they choosethe former alternative, and will main-tain the March 21 prices as best theycan until something fresh turns as a rule the steel producers areunwilling to admit it, they know thatit is altogether improbable that buyers ofsteel will take hold in liberal fashionuntil the market is thrown open. It isnot that buyers have certain definitelyformed ideas as to the prices at whichthey should be able to buy, their feel-ing rather being that there should bean ope
. Hardware merchandising March-June 1919. id than they need be,in the judgment of many observerswho are not steel producers, they choosethe former alternative, and will main-tain the March 21 prices as best theycan until something fresh turns as a rule the steel producers areunwilling to admit it, they know thatit is altogether improbable that buyers ofsteel will take hold in liberal fashionuntil the market is thrown open. It isnot that buyers have certain definitelyformed ideas as to the prices at whichthey should be able to buy, their feel-ing rather being that there should bean open market, whereby whatever priceswere, developed would be such as wouldcommand confidence. The producers feelthat it is too early for liberal buyingto develop, at any prices, hence theywish to defer abandonment of the pres-ent price maintenance are many observers who do notagree with this judgment, believing onthe contrary that if the market werethrown open liberal buying would de-velop within a short time, perhaps in. less than three months, and that there-upon prices would show an advancingtendency. Production Decreasing The monthly report of the AmericanIron and Steel Institute shows that inApril there was produced 2,239,711 grosstons of ingots, by 30 companies whichin 1918 made per cent, of the totaloutput. This means that the industryproduced ingots in April at the rate ofabout 31,900,000 gross tons a year, whichis 65 per cent, of the capacity, estimatedat 49,000,000 tons. For preceding-months the proportions were: March,77 per cent.; February, 85 per cent.;January, 87 per cent. There was asharp decrease from March to April,and this decrease has continued to date,whereby the present rate is only about55 per cent. After all, even 55 per cent,represents a large tonnage, considerablygreater than the output in 1906, whenexisting capacity was pushed to the ut-most and mills were nevertheless fall-ing behind in deliveries. To the producers, however, the
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