STEEL: Assist

To boost its steel production, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. last week announced a $90 million expansion of its East Chicago (Ind.) mill. With 75 new coke ovens and a new 1,400-ton blast furnace, the new plant will raise Youngstown's steel ingot capacity by 20%, its pig iron capacity by 15%. When the new ovens are finished, Youngstown will move from sixth place among the steelmakers into a tie with fifth-place National Steel Corp. (capacity of each: 5,200,000 tons).

Youngstown's expansion is part of a $470 million program by 18 U.S. steel companies, undertaken with an assist from the Government. The National Security Resources Board earlier this month gave the companies "necessity certificates" allowing them, for tax purposes, to write off about 75% of the cost of expansion in five years, instead of the usual 15 to 20 years. Thus, most of the cost of expansion will come out of money that would otherwise be paid in taxes.