STEEL. PROSPECTIVE WORLD SUPPLIES: Memo. by Minister without Portfolio. Steel position last spring and extent to which it has deteriorated. Problem of iron supplies and its reaction on our production of acid and alloy steels. Problem of import of steel scrap. Conclusions. Steel allocations in 1940. (Annex).

(b) The Loss of supplies from France and the Low Countries. 3. The most serious loss of supplies which we have sustai### is that of iron ore, since over half of our imports were to have come from the French North African Empire. It is probable also t### we shall have difficulty in continuing to import from Spain, which is our chief remaining source of supply of hematite ore. A further important loss is the steel which we expected to obtain from France and the Low Countries. This took the form mainly of semi-finished steel, and should have amounted to the equivalent of nearly a million ingot tons in all, although it is doubtful whether in practice this programme could have been fulfilled.