Compromise on Scrap

A two-price system for iron and steel scrap was projected by OPM’s scrap committee last week. Purpose: to bring out more scrap from marginal sources without letting primary suppliers clean up. Plan: Keep the base price $20 a ton or less, but make steel mills buy one-sixth of their requirements from remote areas f.o.b. In some cases this might add $14 a ton for freight.

Booming steel will need 30,000,000 tons of scrap this year, and the OPM investigators admit this is 5,000.000 more than the $20 ceiling would bring out. Steelmakers estimate the new plan would increase their average cost by 83¢ a ton.