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Show U. S. Steel Interested In Purchase Or Lease of Geneva Steel Columbia Steel Reports Plans For Further Enlargements Of Its Facilities To Keep Pace With West Coast Development United States Steel Corporation has advised the Government that it is interested in discussing a possible basis of purchase or lease of the Government-owned steel plant at Geneva, Utah, for post-war operation, William A. Ross, president presi-dent of Columbia Steel company, United States Steel's Pacific coast subsidiary, announced today. Mr. Ross' statement follows: Recent discussion in the press about the possibilities for the postwar post-war production of steel west of the Rocky Mountains may have led some exponents of the further industrial development of the Far West to jump to the conclusion that United States Steel Corporation Corpora-tion and its Pacific coast subsidiary, subsidi-ary, Columbia Steel company, have little interest in the future of the new government-owned steel plant at Geneva, Utah. Any such impresion is quite contrary to the truth. This plant in Utah was designed and built for the government by Columbia Steel company, acting on behalf of United States Steel Corporation, Corpora-tion, and is now being operated for account of the government by another subsidiary of United States Steel, such construction and operation being a war project undertaken by the steel corporation corpora-tion without any fee or profit. United States Steel Corporation is also an exponent for the continued con-tinued industrial development of the Far West. It recognized t he importance of Pacific coast steel markets and their potentialities, when it acquired Columbia Steel company in 1930. This company then had and now continues to maintain a fully integrated steel operation west of the Rockies, with coal and iron mines and a blast furnace and by-product coke ovens in Utah, and steel produc- ing and finishing facilities near San Francisco and Los Angeles. During the past few years, Columbia's Colum-bia's steel finishing facilities in California have been substantially extended and modernized by the expenditure of large sums of money. Columbia Steel company has plans for further enlargements and modernization of its facilities to keep pace with the industrial growth and development of the Pacific coast area. Undoubtedly the acquisition of the government's steel mill at Geneva upon some mutually satisfactory basis and the installation of any required additional ad-ditional finishing facilities could be made to fit in with this postwar post-war program, without causing the abandonment or curtailment of Columbia's existing modern facilities facili-ties in California. In a recent letter to the Chairman Chair-man of Defense Plant Corporation, Corpora-tion, the government agency owning own-ing the Geneva steel mill, Benjamin Benja-min F. Fairless, president of United States Steel Corporation, stated in part: "We also wish to take this opportunity op-portunity to advise you that at such time as either or both of the plants at Fontana and Geneva are no longer needed for present or future war efforts and disposal of the facilities to private interests inter-ests is under consideration, we would be interested in discussing with your representatives a possible pos-sible basis of purchase or lease of all or a part of such facilities for (Continued on Page Ten) U. S. SteeHrUT? Purchase of Geneva (Continued from Pa , operation as part of the p , 1 Steel company. "In the event we Were ,v, arrive at a mutually satis arrangement for either th chase or lease of all or 1 such facilities, we would e" undertake to operate them high a rate of capacity J " ; be warranted by the mark5; their products in the terriJ, ' urally served by their fi2 Referring to the effect ou an acquisition upon the ov steel-making capacity 0f v'1 States Steel Corporation sf which is now less efficient'! the new plant at Geneva v Fairless stated: "We anticipate that such i(r sition of these facilities wouj: accompanied by reductions or placements in existing capacity that our basic steel-making pacity would not be increased '-the '-the post-war period." In view of the recognition k-by k-by United States Steel CotK-tion CotK-tion and Columbia Steel comp--of the importance of west to' markets for steel and these ct-panies' ct-panies' desire for further ki-trial ki-trial development in the Far ff there should be no misunderstc ing about their interested attfc. toward taking the necessary feat fe-at the proper time to meet t post-war steel needs of remarkets. |