The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-05 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday,

There was a pretty good attendance on
I 'Change this afternoon, and the inquiries
were very numerous as to the course events
would take next week as to the prices to
rule in the coming quarter. With the object
of taking advantage of any lowering of the
quotations some of the large buyers inti-
mated that they should not make any more
purchases for ten or fourteen days. They
will not gain anything, however, by waiting,
inasmuch as the official list price of £7 10s.
for marked bars, will not, we understand,
be altered. The marked bar manufacturers
are doing a very small amount of business
and most of them are putting their works
on shorter time rather than sell at lower
prices. Stamping sheets and tin plates met
with some good inquiries this afternoon.
Girder plates were also favourably sought
for, but no contracts of importance were
placed. Hoop makers have been busier
during the past week, and more time has
been made at their mills. Some of the rod
and strip manufacturers have secured a
fair lot of small orders, but at exceedingly
lc sv prices. Common unmarked bars are
in no better demand than they were last
week, and the prices are as low down as
£5 58. Common sheets for galvanising
purposes are to be had at £7 for single 4
The pig iron trade is in a wretched state ;
the sales are only for small lots, and even
for these the competition is very keen Best
pigs to go to other districts have been
bought up moderately well during the past
fortnight, but part-mine iron continues to
increase in stock, and the trade in cinder
pigs is no better, the prices which are taken
being such as to leave a positive loss on
almost every transaction. Messrs. J. and T.
Williams, of Parkfield, near this town, who
make cinder pigs, are going to blow out
more furnaces rather than go on stocking.
Cokes have a very slow sale, and most kinds
of fuel can be got at prices as low as ever
known. The best customers just now are
the hardware manufacturers.

BIRMINGHAM, Thursday.

Transactions at the iron market were, as
a rule, subject to quarter-day quotations,
but there were no orders of any magnitude,
merchants and consumers holding back with
the view of inducing manufacturers to
further reduce prices. The attempt, how-
ever, is not likely to be successful, as the
Earl or Dudley, the Corngreaves Company,
and other leading finished iron manufac-
turers have announced their intention to
maintain the rates in the ensuing quarter on
the basis of £7 lOs for marked bars, with the
usual addition for the Earl of Dudley's make.
In regard to unmarked bars there is less com-
bination among manufacturers, bat prices
can scarcely descend any 1 - wer without rain
to the producer. Pig iron makers are even
in a worse position than the finished iron
manufacturers, and several of the oldest
firms have ceased to produce because the de-
mand is so small, and prices do not admit of
profitable production. Messrs. Addenbrooke's
three furnaces, for instance, have been oat of
blast for upwards of two years, and Messrs.
Phillip Williams end Son have recentlyblown
out their remaining furnace. It is almost
impossible to quote prices in iegard to pig
iron, as there is so much underselling. All-
mine hot-air at the beginning of the present
quarter was nominally quoted at £3 5s per
ton, but the ruling prices have been £3 ss,
and it is offered at 5s below that figure. The
Lilleshall Company are not expected to de-
clare any reduction in their cold-blast irons
but transactions are subject to a special con-
tract. Nailrods are in improved demand
both for local consumption and for shipment,
egnecially to China, the Belgium competition
having considerably abated. The guarantee
fund of the Mines Drainage Commissioners
in the Tipton district has reached the sum of
£22,000, but the quotes of the outside com-
mittees have not yet been handed in, and
there is another week before the month
expires.