WASHINGTON, July 10–England has agreed to ship 10,000 tons of steel a month to the U.S. to head off an impending critical shortage, William L. Batt, chairman of the Combined Production and resources Board, announced.
The transaction was arranged at the request of military and war-production officials faced with the threatened curtailment of tank, sip, heavy-truck and artillery manufacturing this fall because of insufficient U.S. steel output, Batt said.
Charles E. Wilson, executive vice-president of WPB, said that American steel production had dropped to 94.3 percent o the industry’s capacity. Steel officials attributed to slump to the manpower shortage.
Meanwhile, Leo T. Crowley, foreign economic administrator, disclosed that U.S. shipping had received more than $66,400,000 worth of repairs, fuel, stores and services from Britain under reverse Lend-Lease.