The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1881-06-18

The Coal Trade.
The anthracite coal trade, says Mondays
Ledger, for the past week ruled quiet and
nearly steady. Prices in some places are
quoted a shade easier, the sales, in most
cases of a reduction, having been from the
products OF individual operators. The larger
operators in coal adhere closely and very
generally to the agreed-upon terms and
prices, and, while they adhere to existing
arrangements, the trade will no doubt main
tain its favorable outlook and end the year
with good prices and satisfactory profits. The
production holds fairly up, and will increase
in the course of the next two or three weeks
under fuller time work. The orders for coal
are generally fairly full for this period ofthe
year, but the supply offuel would material
ly lessen at the yards If there was better
supply Of transportation. This is more the
cause Of unsold coal on hand than in any
lack Of demand from buyers Of coal. The
parties now inquiring for coal are mostly at
the Eastward, and they generally are urgent
Tor quick delivery. With sufficient trans
portation tJ deliver coal promptly from the
shipping points the supply ON hand will
rapidly lessen. At the Eastward there is re-
ported scarcity of coal, and if the present
policy Of production continues to the end of
the year there is every probability Of short
supply and generally higher prices of coal
when the buyers will be almost entirely at
the mercy, in the matter of prices, of the
producers. All that is publicly made known
between the several parties to the coal trade
indicates that there will be full concert OF
acton-no cutting under nor any oyer. pro-
ductlon with the view of unduly over-stock-
ing the market, The chief feature of the
coal market the past week has been a steady
and widespread complaint of lack of trans
portatiou. Some arrangement has been
made for increased facilities for the trans
portatioh of bituminous and other soft coal,
but as it is to be apprehended that the facili-
ties taken from the anthracite coal and given
to the soft Goals will tend to lessen the one
about as much as it increases Che other, the
gain in the aggregate, it is feared, will not
be very material. The Engineering and
Mining Journal Of the 10th instant,in its re-
view of the previous week, says: "Experi-
ence has confirmed the opinion expressed
in our last issue, that the stoppage decided
upon for June does not meet the require
ments of the market. There is no Disgusting
the fact that the demand for coal does not
show any increased activity. 1t is needless
to repeat what has SO often been stated in
these columns, that the extraordinary efforts
made by the various operators to produce
maximum quantity of coal in given time
has developed the fact, of which the public
is aware, the spasmodic and limited stop.
pages are not the thing In the present con-
dition Of affairs. A solid suspension of two
weeks in June we think should haye been
the policy, thus keeping down the tonnage
and maintaining prices now obtained which,
wethihk,are fair ones, taking into considera.
ton few facts which cannot have escaped
the managers of the trade. First, that
there will probably not be the extraordinary
demand for anthracite which some opti-
mists predicted at the opening ofthe season.
Manufacturing of all kinds is on the verge
of being overdone. The iron industry, by
latest report, is not in the most vigorous
condition, some twenty furnaces in the
Lehigh and schutlkill valleys alone having
recently gone or about going out of blast /;
and last, but not least, the fierce competition
for trade among the bltuminous people has
resulted in delivering their coal at prices
about the same as for manufacturing sizes Of
ordinary hard white ash coal"
No report has been received for the week
ending June from the Belvidere Division
of the United Railroads of New Jersey. The
total tonnage of anthracite coal from all the
regions for the week ending June 4, as re-
ported by the several carrying companies,
amounted TO 6l4,O57 tons, against 969,334
tons in the corresponding week last year, an
increase Of 244,72S tons. The total amount
of anthracite mined for the year is 1851
l57 tons, against S,744, ,255 tons for the same
period last year, an increase of 1,7O2, 800
| tons