With war ended the commercial realities of technological change in steelmaking, exhausting local supplies of raw materials and foreign competition came back to the fore. WISC was merged with other concerns to become part of the United Steel Company (USC), a classic prelude to rationalisation. The CWJR was a private company with shareholders, like any other. The USC offered 70% of the shares' value, which was almost entirely taken up, making the company and its lines part of the USC. The LLR remained owned by the Curwens, becoming leased by the USC instead of the WISC. No evidence has yet been published that this had significant short-term impact on either the LLR or the CWJR. In any event, the latter became part of the LMSR at the Grouping in 1923.
