224 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
BELGIUM.
In 1912 the production of iron ore in Belgium amounted to only
165,000 long tons. Imports of iron ore and pig iron amounted to
about 7,200,000 tons. "The output of pig iron was 2,300,000 tons;
of manufactured iron, 300,000 tons; of steel ingots, 2,500,000 tons;
and of steel rails and other finished forms, 1,900,000 tons. The
exports were 1,500,000 tons, valued at $60,000,000, of which semifinished
 products amounted to $2,770,000. Excluding the output
of the blast furnaces, prior to the war, Belgium exported about 75
ner cent of its iron and steel products.?
Various unsuccessful attempts were made from time to time to
combine the pig-iron manufacturers, as well as the manufacturers
of various iron products, such as slit iron, iron rods, and nail rods.
The manufacturers of steel products were more successful.
Early combinations.—The first permanent combination to be
made in the iron and steel industry ® in Belgium was the Syndicat
belge des rails pour chemins de fer, which combined all of the steel
rail makers in the country. It was formed in 1880 and continued
until 1905, when it fused with the Comptoir des aciéries belges.
Prior to this fusion the rail syndicate was limited in its operation
to the national market; and the members agreed on prices, apportioned
 orders, and, to some extent, limited production; also, agreements
 were made with certain French steel works concerning imports
of rails into Belgium. Little change was made in the national rail
situation when the fusion oceurred.*
The Syndicat belge des accessoires de voie, composed of manufacturers
 of sleepers, locking plates, fishplates, and other railway
accessories; and the Syndicat belge des rails 4 gorge, composed of
three companies producing grooved rails for street-car tracks, were
taken over also by the Comptoir des aciéries belges.*
The Comptoir des aciéries belges.—In 1905, a central selling
gency, the Comptoir des aciéries belges, was organized as an incorporated
 concern, the initial membership consisting of eight manufacturers
 of steel products. For the first two years it was concerned
only with foreign and domestic sales of girders and steel rails, but
in 1907 an agreement was made whereby the sales of semifinished
steel products, such as ingots and blooms, were included with rails
and beams, the agreement being de separately with each producer
by the comptoir and the date of expiration being June 30, 1911. All
the Belgian steel works producing the forms of steel mentioned

1 Statesman’s Year Book, 1914, pp. ii and 692; and Statistical Abstract for the Prinrlpal
 and Other Foreign Countries (London), 1914, No. 39, pp. 141, 143,
ou De Leener. L’Organisation 8yndicale des Chefs d'Industrie (Brussels), 1809, vol. I,
p. 104.
Ibid, p. 118.
17Thid.. pb. 114.