Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-02
IRON MARKET
REVIEWED
Demand is Greater Than Can
be Filled.
PRICES ARE ADVANCING
Lack of Raw Material Prevents an
OverprOductiOn- The Export
Trade to be Curtailed.
PRICES ARE ADVANCING

New York, March 2.-The Iron Age will
say today: The iron and steel markets
are becoming exciting and seem now en-
tirely out of the control of the sellers.
Prices have been jumping dollars per ton
and the excitement is spreading. AS for
the first half of the current year, it has
ceased to be a question of prices and has
become a matter of ability to deliver at
all. 1t is not SO long since the majority
of the trade pool-poohed the prediction
that there would be a scarcity of piS
iron. The fact is admitted now, and the
only question is when relief may be eX-
pected. That may be brought about
either by the blowing in of additional
furnaces or by the checking of the eN-
port shipments, or by the falling off OF
the home demand.
For the first half of the current year
not a single one of these factories nor all
combined will max any impression. VIII
it come early in the second half? We be-
lieve that in this respect the hopes of all
will be doomed to disappointment. 1t is
true that q number of large new, or newly
reInodeled plants in the west are to fall
in after the first Of July, and that fur
naces now idle are expected to start in
soon. It is true that 4 number of small
eastern stacks are trying to get ready
and the same is true in Virginia and the
south. But with many enterprises it is
not a matter of putting the plant into
shape, but of getting raw materials. In
the central west, in the east and in Fir-
ginia the ore problem is the biggest one,
although relief may come to Some
through imported ores. In the south it
is a matter largely of fuel.
The export business, of course, will be
checked. The tonnage of all kinds foots
up to about 500, 600 to 800, 900 tons. For
the first six months and for a part of the
second half much has been contracted
for. In some cases even now it has been
possible to delay deliveries and thus get
room to take on domestic work. In some
lines, like in southern uig iron, contracts
provide that the metal must go abroad,
and switching may not be possible. Under
the circumstances, it does not look as
though much relief can be expected be-
fore October !. AS another fact, it must
be considered that in many lines the con-
sumers rave been bare of stocks for many
years without feetirg any inconvenience.
They are having rather novel experiences
now, and are e~ndeavOring to guard
against them by accommodating some re-
serve. In the aggregate, this means a
big tonnage. The shOrtag of material
has been been exhibited during the week
by some happenings. A leading wire in
tereSt has purchased and IS about to close
for several blocks of billets, aggregating
about 10000 tons, for eastern delivery.
Two eastern steel works have purchased
a stock of about so, 600 tons of Bessemer
pig in the yards of a plant which is now
limiting it's operations to special quality.
What the second half will bring in Bes-
semer pig in the central west will de-
velop in a few days. For eastern ship
ments the furnaces have sold as high as
$12. so and are now out of the market.
There have been heavy sales of mill iron
east and west. The scarcity and high
prices of billets, which have jumped to
1922 at P~ittsburg, are starting every pud-
ding mill in good condition, and the de-
| mand for mill has therefore been very
heavy. In foundry iron there have been
large purchases in the east, while in the
Chicago district a large car company has
taken 1000 tons of northern iron and a
like amount of southern pig for the sec
ond half. Advances have taken place
along the whole line of finished iron and
steel. Structural material is up 81 per
ton and bars are 50 higher. Plates, sheets
and skelp are very difficult to buy at a
sharp advance. Merchant pipe makers
nave issued new uniform discounts.
Cut nails are higher and interest CEN
tiers in the proposition to gather the
western works into a consolidation. A
sharp advance has taken place in wire
products, and in the tin plate further up
ward movement is imminent.