The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-08-05
THE ORE MARKET.
A Rather Slim Outlook for the Mining
Industry.

11S lfOu pfOuuCGlOu Is DcluS SHdi ply
reduced. In the Pittsburg and
Cleveland districts and the interven-
ing valleys, the movement has been
most pronounced, and within another
week will have reduced the active
list still further. Eastern Pennsyl-
vania and the South put out several
furnaces earlier in the month, and
the August statement will show
much more satisfactory relation be-
tween output and consumption. The
course Of the market in the past few
months has had little regard to the
considerations that were SO generally
urged in the spring, on the theory
that the theory that the decline OF
the early months Of the year would
soon be arrested. An advance OF 81
ton and upwards on Bessemer ore, OF
so to 10 cents on coke has been follow
ed by steady decline in pig iron.
The furnaces that have gone out have
thus announced their unwillingness
to keep on piling iron for which they
must have more than tO-day'S market
price to come out even. The rail-
roads have done their share towards
easing the strain, but the real remedy
as furnacemen see it, is to cut off pro-
ductiOn and let the market take up
the weak iron. With the accumulat-
ing evidences of stagnation in so
many departments of the trade. and
the only partial employment OF mills,
foundries and their dependent manu-
factories since the opening of the.
year, the surprise is that the apparent
consumption of pig iron in the first
half of the year was so large. And
when it is considered in this cOnnec-
tion, that the rate Of pig iron pro-
duction in the first half of 1896 was
only per cent less than in the
second half of 1895. in which the
effective blast furnaces of the country
were taxed well-nigh to their utmost.
it is question whether the rolling
and melting capacity of the country,
if it were once called on to do it's
utmost, would find the blast furnaces
able to do more than keep even step
with it. However, the immediate
future gives no promise of any test OF
ability in this direction. The inn
mediate call for finished material is
probably at the smallest rate in years,
not exceeding the summer Of 1893.
The question of price is not so much
an issue with buyers as their own in
ability to gauge their requirements.
In view of the widening gap between
the established price of billets and of
Bessemer iron, it is the expectation
that reduction in the former will be
considered at the meeting OF steel
makers at New York on Friday. Pre-
dictions are made that the price will
be lowered. Low prices are noted in
steel bars, plates and angles, and
lower than pool figures have been
made in some cases on bar iron. New
work in architectural, bridge and
shipbuilding lines is very scarce, and
uuietness is counted on through the
month of August. Low quotations
on Southern irons, particularly at
Eastern points, where the figures of
1894 have been practically duplicated,
have led to some buying by consumers
able to take advantage of the situa-
ton, but these transactions are ex-
ceptional both in price and tonnage.
At Cleveland after waiting for a
month, hoping that the step might
be avoided through some turn in the
situation as to ore or grain, vessel
owners are beginning to tie up por-
tion of their tonnage. Two of the
leading fleets have participated in the
movement, which is not confined to
boats of the smallest capacity. The
present ore rate from Escanaba, 40
cents, is at the lowest point ever
touched, and 80 cents from Marquette
and 60 cents from Duluth, leave no
profit even to the big boats. The
rate of ore shipments in July has
shown falling off from that in the
preceding month, which gave the
greatest June total on record. But
even with the curtailed movement it
is probable that the equivalent OF all
the ore Unau mas Sss,i- 1o,l. .I.i1 have
been brougfl hi down by the middle OF
August. Reports from the furnace
districts supplied with Lake SUI
perior ores do not indicate that the
.nossibility Of a scramble for ore to-