MONEY IN OLD IRON.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20255, 26 July 1937, Page 10

MONEY IN OLD IRON.

DEMAND IN BRITAIN. EASEMENT OF IMPORTATIONS. (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, June 30. British householders, farmers and manufacturers will lie asked to sell any old iron they possess, says the Industrial Correspondent of the Evening Standard. The appeal is to be launched by the Britisli steel industry. Old iron includes such things as discarded cookers and stoves, broken pots and pans, piping, and broken garden and household tools and the like. Most farmers have broken and rusty ploughs, harrows and farm machines. Many manufacturers have discarded machines and tools which they have not got rid of. All kinds of old iron and steel scrap will be wanted by the steel industry for use in steel-making. Scrap is melted down with pig-iron to make new steel. The great heat involved in the melting process burns away rust and it therefore will not matter it’ the articles which householders, farmers, manufacturers and others may have for disposal are rusty. Important Industry. The scrap iron and steel industry, though little known to the general public, is very important. Last year about 7,000.000 1-ms of ] scrap wore used in making Britain's ; record output of it? million ions of | steel. Iron and steel works produced 2i lo 3 million tons of this scrap in Hip normal processes of manufacturing , finished iron and steel products. An- I

other three million tons were obtained from home Industry and a million tons were imported. Imported scrap was worth over £3,000.000. Most scrap comes from large users of iron and steel, such as locomotive and engineering works, and shipbuilding yards. The manufacture of motorcars, motor-cycles and aircraft is an important source of supply. So also is the manufacture of tin cans, and other industries which stamp parts from steel sheets. Large tonnages are obtained from shipbreaking. Discarded motorcars from which all valuable parts have been removed are likewise used, and can be put whole into ttie great steel i melting furnaces. ! Beside these sources of supply there is a greater stock of old iron and steel In private hands. This stock has not yet been tapped, having hitherto been regarded as valueless. Rearmament. The present need for old Iron and steel scrap is due to the heavy demand for steel 'by all industries, and 'to the rearmament programme. I To-day Britain Is producing steel at the rate of about 12* million tons a I year. This huge tonnage will require j from seven to eight million tons of (scrap for its production. Other countries, in particular Japan, l Italy and Germany, are making heavy i purchases of scrap on the internaJtionnl market. Some countries, sueh * ;<s Belgium, have prohibited the export !of steel scrap. Arrangements Slave now been concluded in Britain which, (ensure that no scrap will be exported. Thus any old Iron and steel which is forthcoming from the general public will lessen British dependence I foreign sources for a vital raw llair