View Online (Part 2)

JUI £ 17, ltU COi f! DUTI U 5
The Case of the Surplus Aluminum
Oespile produelton cut.bocks, reloxotions,metol
still piles up. Big heodoehe isoircroft-stoc115
enoucJh lor six months' output if European
..or ends this year.
ALUHIN~ Is In a parodoxlca1 position.
Despite the closing of potllnes, despite
Lhe .end of restrict lone onmillt.ary use,
and despite expanded usee In Industrial
and essential civilian pralucu, new
supply has been running aheod of consumpt
ion for more than a year and s t ocks
or alumli'IUJ!I Ingot have been builL up
La one peale level after another !chart,
p88e 61. So Lalay's bllf problem In
aluminum-once among Lhe nation's LllfhLest
materials--is what Lo do about the
surplus.
This Is no sudden problem; IL has
been developing since the early months
or 1943, when statist ics first showed
a surplus of aluminum Ingot In Lhe hands
or producers: 35,000,000 pounds at the
end of March. Today, Lhe privately held
surplus has rrown toapproxlnately 140,-
000.000 pounds; and the governmentslockplle
of roughly 360,000,000 pounds I primary
plus secondary aluminum! is lOS
hlrher than called for. In all, current
stocks of Ingot aluminum, in the nelihborhood
of 500,000,000 pounds, are equal
Lo mor e Lhan t wo ~nLhs' consumption.
tAS IC oaora a£lAl £D
In keeping with the transition of
aluminum from a Light Loan easy metal,
the basic aluminum order IM-1-i l was
emended In July, 1943, to pel"'llt Lhe
Arlit/, Navy, and Maritime Canuisslon to
use alumln_.., in benches, bulkheods,
lockers, mess w.bles, kitchenware, am­
IIWliLlon chests, powder cans, deck lights,
hand wheels fD