At the end of 1948, after supplying the United States steel industry in the course of the year with an exceptionally heavy volume of manganese ore, in response to a strong and rising market demand, the Soviet Government decided to reduce the shipments of this vital, steel-conditioning mineral to minimum quantities short of an outright embargo. This decision was conveyed to the principal importing firms in the United States in December, 1948, in a brief business communication from the appropriate Government export corporation (Sojuzpromexport) to the effect that owing to increased domestic demand only small, token shipments of manganese ore would be available for export to American markets, during the following year. The reduction in shipments was quite drastic. Only ten manganese cargoes arrived in United States ports during 1949, unloading a total of 73,000 long tons of ore, as compared with 385,000 tons, or 34 per cent of total United States imports brought in from that country during 1948. In one year, therefore, the USSR abandoned its role of major supplier of manganese to the United States to become a minor source, supplying only 5 per cent of total imports in 1949 and less than 3 per cent in 1950.