Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-17
IRON MARKET.

Cincinnati, June 15.-Reviewing the striking features of the pig iron market in the week just closing, attention may be called to few significant facts.
 First is that the large demand which has been the basis of the recent rise in prices. is not speculative. So far as can | be learned the purely speculative transac- tions would not amount to l per cent of the total business done. Consumers have no doubt been led to buy more because of the expectation of a greater advance in prices, and to this extent their purchases may have been speculative, but a close scrutiny of wide range of tranactionS show very few in which the buyers did more than cover for their requirements for work actually in sight. There is lit tie prospect, therefore, that the furnaces will later have to compete with blocks of speculative iron bought at bottom prices and put upon the market for sale to con- sumers.
 Another feature worthy of note is that the users of iron, instead of resisting the advance, take kindly to it. In most lines of foundry and rolling min work busi- ness has got into such a hopeless rut of low prices that nothing but a sharp ad- vance Tn raw materials can lift the manu- lecturers out. The beneficial effects are already seen in several lines where ad- Vances have been established on castings or finished iron, double that which was put on pig iron. Not a few consumers boldly proclaim their belief in and desire for $5 rise.
 Another interesting feature for study in the market, is the reserve furnace capacity. The current impression is that for every dollar advance in price of pig Iron, an indefinite number of fur naces will be turned loose on the mar ket until the country will be flooded with iron and prices again break. This is a very superficial view Of the situa- tion Those we'll informed, know that in the districts where the cheap iron is produced, practically the full furnace capacity is at work now and has been for six months past. We have called at tention to this feature before. The re- serve furnace capacity is for the most part distributed in districts that are shut out except on a range of prices materially above the present. The prin- cipal number of furnaces of modern build that are idle are those on the Nor folk and Western railroad In Virginia. Ii is a well known fact that the increase of product from that district must come very slowly through the development of mines, the building of branch roads, etc, a work that was interrupted before the panic began
 A further significant point in the im- provement, Is the fact that a strong market Is built up almost wholly inde- pendent of demand from the railroads. It proves that the cheapness of iron and steel has slowly broadened the uses of these materials in the United States. opening for them new and important fields that in the aggregate amount to as much as the normal requirements Of the railroads. This opens a prospect for a large and uniform business for iron. independent of the fluctuations In rail- road building and equipment Later, when the railroads are compelled to buy cars and track equipment. it will come as a new element of strength in the market.
 Reviewing the range of prices during the week, southern irons continue where they were a week ago, except that gray forge is quoted on a basis of $7.50. Bir- mingham, a further advance of 20 cents per ton. It is very scarce at that. No. foundry stands firm at $S.25, and No. 2 foundry at $7.75. Bessemer pig has further advanced and is now saleable at SIP at valley furnaces, or $l265 at Pittsburg. Billets and finished products have advanced further. Bessemer ores are higher and reported scarce. Non Bessemers have not changed much. Coke is likely to be higher after July l. The strike in the Pocahontas district still drags along Labor troubles generally, in the iron trade have been few and easily adjusted.
 We quote for cash f. 0. b. Cincinnati; Southern coke, No. F'd'y. $1U 25 to l0 50 Southern coke, No. F'd'y