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Show WATER FOR UTAH ingham, Alabama, $ 11.40; Sparrows Point, Maryland, $ 14.19; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, $ 14.21; Gary, Indiana, $ 15.56; Fontana, California, $ 15.83. Although prices for component raw materials are much higher today, the relative comparative levels are thought to be exemplary of Utah's favorable production cost position. In terms of potential growth of the primary units of Utah's iron and steel industry, raw materials in Utah and adjoining areas seem ample to support expansion. ... The Industrial Plant... Sixty- five per cent of the pig iron capacity of the eleven Western States is located near Provo, Utah, in the plants of the Geneva Steel Company and the Kaiser- Frazer Company. ( See Map 12 - Ferrous Metals Industry Pattern - page 53.) The rated capacity of Geneva's blast furnaces, three of which are at Geneva and one at Iron- ton, is an annual 1,350,000 tons to which must be added Kaiser- Frazer's 300,000 tons yearly. Supporting these blast furnaces are both byproduct and beehive coke ovens. Geneva's byproduct ovens, with an annual rated capacity of over 1,200,000 tons are supplied with coking coal principally from the Sunnyside coking coal fields. There are also beehive coke ovens near Sunnyside, most of which are operated by the Kaiser- Frazer Company and the Utah Fuel Company. The Geneva Steel Company at Geneva operates nine open- hearth steel furnaces with an annual rated capacity of 1,284,000 tons. In conjunction with this steel ingot capacity, this company operates rolling mills near the primary production units. These mills have rated a capacity for an annual tonnage of 200,000 tons of medium range structural shapes and some 700,000 tons per year of sheared plates. It has been recently announced that additional rolling equipment will be installed at these mills for the production of between 300,000 to 600,000 tons of hot rolled light gage coils. The output of the Kaiser- Frazer Company blast furnace is shipped in its entirety to the company's steel operations at Fontana, California. ... Production and Markets ... In percentage of total national production, the Western States' blast furnace capacity increased from 1.25% in 1940 to 3.7% in 1947. Of this, Utah's plants provided more than one- half. ( See Map 13 - Flow of Ferrous Metals - page 54.) Their output was largely utilized in the State for steel production and for cast- iron pipe, with the remainder being shipped to California steel plants - notably those in Pittsburgh and Torrance owned by the United States Steel Corporation, the parent company of Geneva Steel Company, and to the Fontana steel works of the Kaiser- Frazer Company. A portion of the pig iron, produced from Geneva's blast furnaces is sold to the Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company in Provo, Utah. Its present operation is on the order of 50,000 tons of pipe per year; recently the company announced the immediate construction of a new centrifugal pipe foundry to cost an estimated $ 2,250,000 which will require additional pig cast iron from the Geneva Steel Company's blast furnaces. The steel- making capacity of Utah - of Geneva Steel's open- hearth furnaces - is almost entirely consumed in that company's Utah steel rolling mills for the production of heavy structural shapes and sheared plates. As previously noted, hot rolled light- gage coil capacity is being installed. The over- all market situation for Utah's ferrous metals industries is somewhat complex and must be viewed in terms of the interaction of three factors; West Coast requirements, the producing and fabricating capacity of other Western States, and shipments of iron and steel products from plants east of the Mississippi River. The " basing point" system of the national ferrous metals industry further complicates a ready analysis of markets. In terms of steel ingot capacity, the elevei? Western States in 1947 approximated 5% of the Nation's total, or almost double prewar levels. It is significant to observe that this increase of almost 100% in the West compared with an increase of only 17% in the national total. In other words, the expansion of the West's iron and steel capacity matched the expansion of its population [ 52] |
