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Show MEET ON PLANT CLOSE DOWN IS POSTPONED 1 ,-vtty. Geneial F.ooert W. Kenny of California, chairman of that state's commission on inter-state cooperation, said Tuesday that a proposed conference, on western steel plants could not be arranged until early February, a United Press dispatch from San Francis- co reported. Mr. Kenny announced Monday that Tie was seeking to arrange for early January a conferenc of western states' representatives and Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, Ne-vada, head of a senate committee on steel industry decentralization to urge completion of the Geneva steel works in Utah. His proposal was prompted by the recent suspension sus-pension of construction of the structural rolling mill at the pro-iect pro-iect But Tuesday the California attorny general was advised tnai Senator McCarran would not be available for the proposed conference confer-ence until early in February. The same dispatch quoted reports re-ports that two open hearth furnaces fur-naces at Henry J. Kaiser's Fon-tana, Fon-tana, Cal., steel plant had ceased operations because of withdrawal of lend-lease ingot orders. Dr. J. R Mahoney of the University of Utah, who has made an extensive ' study of western steel developments, develop-ments, said the Fontana furnaces probably had shut down because of insufficient plate mill capacity to take care of the ingoc f tion. The Fontana plant, he said, has six furnaces and a plate rolling roll-ing mill which went into operation early in the fall. He attained no particular significance sig-nificance to the reported shutdowns shut-downs with respect to west coast steel needs, interpreting it as a result of unbalance bet ween ingot output and finishing facilities l He pointed out that other coast mills had furnaces to meet their own ine-ot requirements. The Geneva plant's production wm consist almost wholly of steel ,.t, for the shipbuilding industry plate for tne snip the when it gins production in the neMreanwhne, a telegram has been received from Senator Elbert D-Thomas D-Thomas of Utah, assuring that T"m. Nelson of war P ratiom both favor common of the Genva structirraJjmil |