The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-11 00:00:00

Tril4l STOTTYPRIPC4F OPSFIRITFP.

THE IRON TRADE.
WOLVERHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY.
The first of the current series of iron-
masters' quarterly meetings came off to-day,
in this town. For a quarter of a century
there has been no similar gathering of the
trade at which either the interest in bus:-
nessmr the business done has been so little.
At ;the corresponding meeting in 1873,
branded finished iron quotations were upon
the basis of £l6 for bars; to-day they were
upon the basis of £l4. Good bars were at
' the earlier date firm, at from £l4 ltts to
£l5 ; they are to-day easy at from £ll 10s
to £l2. On the f4th of April last year a
fair amount of business was done for export
and home: on the Bth of April this • year
scarcely a ton of iron has changed hands.
The difference in the two periods is due in
great part to the steady decline in the de-
mand for British high-priced iron, and grow-
ing competition of the low-priced Belgian,
and French, and German, and American
article. Quality and quality, Belgian bar-
iron can be bought in London to-day at £3
per ton under the Staffordshire prices; and
equally quality for quality, United States
iron can be purchased by Canadian con-
sumers at £2 per ton under our quotations•
It had been hoped that to-day there would
have been a decline in Staffordshire quota-
tions for finished iron of £2 a ton ; lint it
cannot he said that expectation was realised.
Mr. E. Horton, the manager of the famous
Lillieshall Company, dropped the prices of
the pig-iron of his firm 208 a ton, making
the cold-blast quality £7 lOs and hot-blast
£ti 10a per ton. The quotations of this
Shropshire firm usually regulate the quota-
tions of the South Staffordshire makers, and
it was so to-day. Hence there was a drop
on the quarter in native pig-iron of 20s.
This should have brought about the antici-
pated drop of £2 in finished iron. Such a
drop was not, however, declared, because,
first, there are 14,000 miners out on strike;
and, next, because it is at present doubtful
w at wages will have to be given in the en-
suing quarter to the operatives in the fin-
ished iron trade. As to the colliers' strike.
all (loubt on that head can be removed if
the masters will submit to arbitration : and
as to the ironworkers' wages, that matter
will
.lie discussed on Friday, in York. At
that meeting the probability seems to be
that the Northern ironmasters will demand
that the men accept a lower scale of wages
than what is known as •• the Derby proposi-
tion ;" and that though the Staffordshire
masters might not be indisposed to accept
that scale, yet that the ultimate arrange-
ment will be to a larger extent against the
mete It is not probable that there will be
any fixed prices of finished iron quoted to-
morrow. If the crucial pr cc should be de-
clared £l2 for bars, buyers hold that there
would be but very little more business done
than now when the crucial price is £l4. £4
it is now maintained, must come off finished
iron, and branded bars be £lO a ton, before
a steady trade can be again done in finished
iron in South Staffordshire. This would
mean a further 20s off pig-iron, and a pro-
portionate drop in wages of miners and iron-
workers. And it will have to come about
before there are orders for the masters and
labour for the men—let the men resist it as
much as they please. The putting out of
30 blast furnaces, mentioned last week,
means a lessened demand of half a million
tons of coal, and only little less ironstone
and limestone, per annum. It is impossible
for this great quantity to be suddenly out
of request without a severe pinch to men as
well as masters, and both must meet the
difficulty if it is to be overcome. The mas-
ters maintain that it is absolutely necessary
that the reductions for which they have
notice to the miners should be enforced. In
proof of this, one firm, who get their own
coal, and are also blast furnace and mill and
forge proprietors, assured us this afternoon
that even though the colliers should accept
the reduction for which notice has been
given to them, still so unprofitable would
even then be the making of pig-iron at the
only prices now obtainable that the only
effect upon their working would be that not
one of two of their furnaces now out would
be relighted, and only one furnace now doing
half-work put on full blast. Though the
pumping of their collieries costs them £2,000
per annum, yet it would be a less loss they
say to keep their cutleries standing than work
them at the old rate of wages. Another
firm pointed out that whilst they are com-
pelled to sell their iron 33 per cent, under
the rates of a twelvemonth ago, they are ask-
inr their colliers to submit ti a drop of only
20 per cent. Colliery proprietors maintained
that there was no prospect of their giving
way !it the struggle with the colliers, and
that the wisest course will be to at once
give notice to the men that they must ac-
cept wages which will aloneoccasion activity
in the district. In truth, there were those
who held that this would never be until
both hours and wages at the mines weie
brought back to the 1871 range. The fin-
ished ironmakers did not much complain of
the shortness of coal at the mills and forges.
Owing to the small demand and to the holi-
days, they have hardly, they say, begun to
consider the effect upon themselves of the
colliers strike. Very little finished iron is
going hence. Amongst the orders is the
singular one of splendid angle bars from the
mills of Messrs. G. B. Thorneyeroft and Co.
(Wolverhampton), intended to be used in
the building, in this country, of an iron ves-
sel for German Government. Yet the Ger-
mans are competing with us in some of our
markets. One more furnace—that of Mr.
Onions, at Dudley Port—has been blown out
in the week. The Pelsall colleries are
amongst those which are at an entire stand.