FOREIGN TRADE: Liberiam Ore

Into Baltimore harbor last week steamed the converted Liberty ship Simeon G. Reed with a 10,000-ton cargo of iron ore, the first shipment to the U.S. from mines in Liberia. To get out the ore, Republic Steel Corp., which bought an estimated 62% interest in Liberian Mining Ltd. two years ago (TIME, March 28, 1949), has had to build Liberia's first railroad, from the mines to the port of Monrovia 43 miles away. The high-grade Liberian ore (whose iron content is almost 70%, compared to 51% for Lake Superior ore) is rich enough to be used directly in Republic's open-hearth furnaces. Republic expects to use 600,000 tons a year of Liberia's output, estimated at more than 1,000,000 tons, also to sell ore to other steel companies.