MINERAL  PRODUCTS.

15

According  to  present  information, 1  there  are  strong  indications
that  American  steel  is  already  needed  abroad.  Inquiries  for  steel
products  are  being  received  by  domestic  manufacturers  from  consumers ­
  in  England,  Scotland,  Japan,  and  South  America.  Consumers ­
  in  England  whose  supply  from  Belgian  mills  has  been  cut
off  are  placing  orders  for  their  immediate  needs  with  American
manufacturers.  The  demand  for  steel  products  on  the  Pacific  coast
became  very  active  after  the  declaration  of  war;  therefore  the  opening ­
  of  the  Panama  Canal  becomes  at  once  a  factor  of  great  importance ­
  to  the  steel  industry  and  should  result  in  the  permanent  transference ­
  to  American  mills  of  a  large  part  of  the  Pacific  trade  heretofore ­
  placed  with  mills  in  England,  Germany,  and  Belgium.
The  United  States  has  heretofore  had  only  a  fraction  of  the  trade
with  South  America  in  iron  and  steel  and  machinery,  but  our  manufacturers ­
  are  now  actively  canvassing  the  possibilities  of  extending
this  trade,  and  the  prospects  for  increasing  our  share  of  it  are  bright.
MANGANESE.
A  serious  phase  of  the  interruption  to  commerce  caused  by  the
European  war  is  the  shutting  off  of  the  foreign  supply  of  ferromanganese ­
  from  the  steel  manufacturers  of  this  country.  The  domestic ­
  marketed  production  of  ferromanganese  and  spiegeleisen  in
1912  and  1913  was  227,939  long  tons  and  226,475  long  tons,  respectively, ­
  and  the  imports  of  these  alloys  for  those  years  were  100,152
long  tons  and  128,147  long  tons,  respectively,  of  which  ferromanganese ­
  constituted  99,137  tons  in  1912  and  128,070  tons  in  1913.  The
imports  of  these  alloys  therefore  constituted  30.5  and  36  per  cent,
respectively,  of  the  available  supply  in  1912  and  1913.  England  and
Germany  have  furnished  most  of  these  imported  alloys  in  recent
years.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  ferromanganese  produced  in
the  United  States  is  manufactured  by  steel  companies  for  their  own
consumption,  so  that  those  manufacturers  who  have  heretofore  depended ­
  on  foreign  supplies  must  either  make  arrangements  to  purchase ­
  the  needed  alloys  from  other  domestic  companies  or  else  enter
the  field  as  producers  themselves.  In  either  event  much  more  ferromanganese ­
  may  have  to  be  manufactured  in  the  United  States  if
the  foreign  supplies  are  cut  off  for  any  considerable  period.  Added
impetus  has  thus  been  given  to  certain  projects  which  are  under
way  for  the  utilization  of  the  manganiferous  iron  ores  of  the  Cuyuna
Range,  Minnesota,  in  the  manufacture  of  high-manganese  pig  iron
and  ferromanganese  at  Dunbar  blast  furnaces  in  Pennsylvania.
With  regard  to  manganese  ores,  the  situation  presents  features  of
still  greater  interest.  Notwithstanding  the  abundant  supplies  of
manganese  in  the  United  States,  its  domestic  production  has  been
relatively  small,  but  the  imports  have  been  so  large  as  to  indicate  a

Iron  Trade  Review,  Aug.  20,  1914  ;  Iron  Age,  Aug.  20,  1914,