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Show unwanted materials removed. A record 64.8 million tons of treated ore was consumed last year, 98 per cent of it in blast furnaces. The former high usage us-age was 62.9 million tons during dur-ing 1961. Consumption has increased in-creased about 60 per cent since 1957, when data were first reported. A record was set in 1962 in the consumption of oxygen, which totaled 83.8 billion cubic feet for all purposes in steel plants last year. The use o; oxygen has increased in each year since reports began in 1956, and the 1962 total is 21 per cent greater than the former high of 69.4 billion cubic cu-bic feet in 1961. New technique changes steel's use of materials The weight of solid materials mater-ials charged into blast furnaces furn-aces to make a ton of iron was cut by more than 16 per cent in 1962 as compared with 10 years earlier, according to averages compiled by American Ameri-can Iron and Steel Institute. Engineers cite this as one of many examples of the industry's indus-try's progress in technology. Last year, blast furnaces consumed 2.667 net tons of iron-bearing materials, coke and limestone for each ton of iron output, compared with 3.193 tons of those materials in 1953. Paramount among the reasons rea-sons given for better blast furnace efficiency is the increased in-creased use of specially treated iron ore principally sinter and pellets which have many |