The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-05 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE

THE AMERICAN COMPETITION.
WOLVERIIABITON, WEDNESDAY.

There was not much stir on 'Change this aft r-
noon, and it was an exception to the rule when
makers of pia or finished iron were able to re-
port an active demand. Some ironmasters, who
made tolerably fair sales in some departments at
quarter-day, complained of the withholding of
the specifications by customers; and others
affirmed that the negotiatons begun at quarter.
day ripened to only little business. The plate
trade is getting quieter in most of its branches,
though for the less valuable descriptions a
moderate number of orders are under execution
for the local engineers. Boiler-plate orders
are much sought after. Sheets have not any-
thing like recovered the position which they oc-
cupied before the holidays, and buyers could
have placed orders this afternoon at prices that
have not been possible for some months past.
The hoop and strip business is only slack. The
falling off in South Staffordshire for bailing
strip is something remarkable. There are firms
who at one time were constantly running their
hoop mills to supply the requirements of the
United States, that are now doing literally no-
thing in that department. They have had to
suffer considerable competition. Many strip
mills have been lately started in and about War-
rington, where the pig-iron mostly used is nearer
at hand, and where also the mills and forges
are nearer the exporting market, Liverpool.
Then there is the United States competition,
which is a much more serious matter still.
Lastly, we are to have competition from the
other side of the Atlantic in
steel strip, for many of the American steel-
masters have now found that they can use the
crop ends of steel rails in the rolling of capital
steel strip, which is lighter, and stronger, and
more flexible than iron strip, and therefore in
every'way more suitable to bailing purposes. The
information is that a firm known as William
Clark and Company are now doing this from the
crop ends of steel rails made at the Edgar
Thompson Company's steelworks, and it is de.
dared that whilst the quality is very superior to
anything of the kind produced from iron, the
price of these crop ends is no more than the
cost of paddled, or, as the Americans phrase its
muck bar.

Iron merehants were not good buyers this
afternoon for the miscellaneous descriptions,
which largely constitute the stock of the ware-
houses from which the hardware manufacturers
mostly obtain their supplies. Home iron mer-
chants in this district, in particular, are believed
to have bought with exceptional freedom before
quarter-day, on the assumption that the coal-
masters would have had ta yield to the demand
of the colliers, and that iron would consequently
be declared up. Anyhow, it was stated this
afternoon that the merchants' warehouses there-
abouts are well supplied with most kinds of
Staffordshire finished iron. A few ironmaking
firms of first-class standing, because of the
value of their product, are more satisfactorily
employed than for some time past, benefited by,
the poor qualities which, at low rates, were sup-
plied from other districts, alike at home and
abroad, in the completion of some late contracts
for railway companies. The purchasers find
that it answers their purpose to give the higher
quotations asked by the makers of this district
rather than to accept the lower rates referred
to.

There was no disposition to purchase pig-iron
of hardly any description, and £4 12s. 64 was
deemed a full price for a more than medium
quality of South Staffordshire all•mine. Never-
theless. them were firms who required higher
quotations ; and cold-blast pigs were strong, at
£6.

Coal is offered in larger quantities and of
nearly all the qualities which this district yields,
and colliery owners and agents showed some
anxiety to book orders this afternoon, but they
met with indifferent success, though it was pos-
sible to buy on terms whirl' would give the pur-
chaser a fair advantage as compared witu some
earlier prices.