2- on iron ore as an important segment of their economy and a major source of foreign exchange. In turn the steel-producing centers of the world have become dependent in considerable but varying measure on imported ores. By 1958 the major expansion of mining capacity combined forces with the slowing down of the expansion of world steel output to cause the iron ore industry to shift from a seller's to a buyer's market. At the same time, better ships and a surplus of shipping capacity caused ocean freight rates to decrease drastically. The result was a sharp decline in margins for both the mining and the shipping of iron ore, a condition which largely prevails today. The chief beneficiaries of this change have been the steel mills located on tidewater, far removed from their sources of ore supply and who bought from independent sources. Many of the U. S. steel companies are relatively less dependent upon ores imported from great distances and many have their own captive mines and it is their relative position, vis-a-vis steel producers from other countries, that has deteriorated. Yet, those who were hurt the most by this change in the market place were the independent merchant ore producers like ourselves. While the United States and Europe have seen their overseas imports of iron ore increase 300 to 400% since 1950, it has been Japan, without major reserves of its own, that has realized the most spectacular change. By 1962 Japanese imports were up 1500% from 1950 and by