CHEVROLET WON the 1954 auto-production race by a hair, but Ford claims the sales lead for the first time since 1935, though final sales figures will not be in until February. Though Chewy made 1,414,286 cars to Ford's 1,394,657, Ford claims that it sold more. In 1953 Chewy outproduced Ford by nearly 20%, yet sold only 17% more cars.

COPPER LODE in Peru, one of the biggest ever found, will be developed by a combine of four big U.S. firms calling themselves the Southern Peru Copper Corp. The new company will be run by American Smelting & Refining Co. with 57 3/4% of the stock. Others: Cerro de Pasco Corp. (16%), Phelps Dodge Corp. (16%) and Newmont Mining Corp. (10 1/4%). The company will spend $200 million within five years to develop deposits at 10,000 ft. along the western flank of the Andes, with more than 1 billion proven tons of copper ore.

CRUDE-RUBBER STOCKPILING should be ended, say rubber manufacturers. B.F. Goodrich Chairman John L. Collyer says that the Government stockpile now has 1,200,000 long tons worth an estimated $825 million -enough to last six to eight years in an emergency.

NORTHWEST LABOR PEACE for the embattled lumber industry seems assured for the next 15 months. Both A.F.L. and C.I.O. loggers (100,000 men), who walked out on strike for 84 days last fall, have agreed to a 7 1/2-c- pay increase recommended by an arbitration panel appointed by Washington's and Oregon's governors.

DENVER BUILDING PROJECT by two of President Eisenhower's fishing companions will be one of the biggest in Colorado's history. With other businessmen Bankers Bal F. Swan and Aksel Nielsen, joint owners of the ranch where Ike trout fishes, have formed the Turnpike Land Co. to build a $100 million model community of 6,000 brick houses, shopping centers, parks, schools and churches outside of town, along the turnpike running between Denver and Boulder.

ELECTRONIC BRAINS will soon be put to work by the Prudential Life Insurance Co. in a big way. The company has leased eight giant IBM brains for its home and regional offices, will use them to speed up billing of policyholders and other office operations. Cost: $40,000 per machine per month.

BANK OF AMERICA, first private bank to pass the $8 billion mark in resources, has climbed to $9,163,355,289, an increase of more than $661 million in a year.

SCHENLEY INDUSTRIES, one of the world's biggest whisky makers (fiscal 1954 sales: $410 million), has gained control of Park & Tilford Distillers Corp. (estimated 1954 sales: $45 million) by buying 176,000 shares of stock (70%) for $7,500,000 from President Arthur D. Schulte and his family. Schenley will offer the same price ($43 per share) to all remaining stockholders.

TIRE PRICES, up 5% in the last few months, are headed still higher. Both U.S. Rubber and Goodyear have just announced 2 1/2% to 5% price boosts because of continuing high crude-rubber prices, and the rest of the industry will probably follow suit. Predictions are for an overall 8% boost by June.

CAB APPOINTMENT to fill the seat vacated by Aeronautics Boss Oswald Ryan will go to Harold Jones, 57, a California Republican who served previously on the board under Harry Truman.

BOEING JET TRANSPORT prototype, with a total of 92 hours of test-flight time, has cruised considerably higher and faster than the 40,000 ft. and 550 m.p.h. first reported. The big four-jet plane has made one short flight at 634 m.p.h. and climbed to about 50,000 ft.

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