PREFACE.

The following report takes the place of a series of Tariff Information Surveys covering the manufacture of all the important ferroalloys and originally prepared from available sources of information for use of the United States Tariff Commission. The pioneer character of some branches of ferroalloy manufacture made desirable an intensive investigation of this field of production, both in the United States and abroad. The similarity in use and character of the several ferroalloys, notwithstanding a greatly varying tariff problem in each case, has led to the embodiment of the results in a single report. This report, prepared by the United States Tariff Commission, was transmitted to the Committee on Ways and Means. In its present form the report is a revision of the one printed for the use of the House committee mentioned, with certain trade and price statistics brought up to date.

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PREFACE.

This report is a study of the ferroalloy industries whose development in the United States is very recent and upon which some of our leading branches of manufacture are largely dependent. The growth of the steel industry during the last half century is intimately associated with the use of spiegeleisen and ferromanganese. Specialized uses of steel emphasized the need for varying qualities in the metal employed, and this need has called into existence industries capable of satisfying the demand. To-day certain ferroalloys which were either unknown or in an experimental stage a few decades ago are now recognized not only as commercial necessities but as military and political essentials.

From a tariff standpoint the manufacture of the ferroalloys illustrates many points of interest. Some ferroalloys are made by processes whose operation is cheaper in this country than abroad; others are produced under conditions which make their manufacture here more expensive. Some ferroalloys are made entirely of domestic raw material; others are dependent upon the imported product. The effect of these conditions upon the competitive position of American manufacturers is worthy of study.

There is, furthermore, in any proposal of tariff legislation the problem of a proper correlation of duties in different stages of manufacture. The fixing of compensatory duties, for example, depends upon a proper recognition of the losses of material involved in passing from one stage of production to another. These losses are by no means uniform, but vary with the ores used and process of manufacture employed.

The study of the ferroalloy industries in the light of their conditions of manufacture reveals the need, which is strongly felt in other lines of production, for a better and more up-to-date classification of products in the tariff schedules. This need is urgent, irrespective of the tariff policy followed.

In the preparation of this report the commission had the services of Abraham Berglund, of the metals division of the commission's staff, and of others.