The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-12-04
THE MOST NOTABLE
HAg
EVENT OF THE WEEK
Starting of the Big Steel Mill at
EnsIey.
EFFECT ON SOUTHERN TRADE
Review of the Iron Market for the Week
Ending Saturday, December 3
President Baxter of Tennes-
see Co., on the Situation.

Cincinnati. December s.-(Special. 1.-The
following review of the iron market for the
week ending Saturday December q has
been issued by Matthew, Addy & Company:
THE most notable event of the week was
the starting of the Tennessee Coal, Iron
and Railroad company's steel plant at Ems
ley on Thursday, the BOTH The first run
of steel was made at noon that day and the
ingots were satisfactory in every way. This
of course marks the beginning of the new
era in the history of the southern iron
trade.
The story of the week as far as new
business is concerned is very easily told,
for there have been no developments of
particular Importance. Thanksgiving de-
cidedly interrupts the buying of iron, but
Notwithstanding the fact that the week
has been broken by one of the great ma
tional holidays, trade has been regular and
steady, although the buying is of the minor
kind The pig iron orders these days are
on the plan of many mickle makes
muckle, for while the single orders are not
large, yet the total tonnage is very salts
factory. In fact this has been the history
of November.
Trouble in DE iverts
"The furnaces have had the same trouble
On delivering iron that they have had
since July, and amy odd lots that could be
offered for quick shipment have been speed
lily taken up AS the season progresses, it
is more and more evident that certain
grades are short and that these grades
will be short for at least six months to
come. OF course, they will continue to
grow more and more difficult to get.
"A careful review of tine iron consumers
yards demonstrates the fact that very few
OF them have anything like normal sup
ply for this of the year. Ordi-
nary al this time the foundres make an
attempt to accumulate iron so as to pro-
vide against the coming of bad weather
when shipments are difficult to handle,
and when railroad traffic is necessarily
more or less Interrupted: but notwith-
standing the large buying for forward de-
livery, which has been coming on now
upwards of six months, remarkably large
tonnage of iron is still to be bought for
consumption during the early months of
| next year. Where the iron is going to
come from Is problem that the future
will have to solve"
- s.;s- MIR. Baxter on Situation
In this connection, review of the sit
uation from the furnaces standpoint is
interesting. N. Baxter, Jr., president of
the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad
company, writes us on this topic as fol-
lows:
" ON the first of June, 1898. stocks on fur
mace yards were 1861 tons of coke iron,
and in the warrant yards about the same
date they were 25S,OOO tons, making togeth-
er 772,361 tons. By the end of the year, De-
cember 81 they were reduced to FOG tons
of coke iron on furnace yards and on the
warrant yards to 10000 TONS making 4d,-
sos tons. On the 31st of October coke iron
| on furnace yards had been reduced to 2,133
| tons, and the last report (Which is Novem-
| her 800 shows that the stocks on the war;
| rant yards are reduced to 1900 tons, max
| ing 3,433 From June of last year to the
| end of the year the stocks of coke iron
consumed in excess of furnace make was
| 1850 tons, and between January and No
vember- of this year the amount of coke
iron consumed in excess of furnace make
| is 391, 073 tons.
Must Depend on Daily Make
:" The stocks of coke iron consumed in
excess of the furnace make Is itself largely
| in excess of the increased production,
though / have not at hand the statistics to
make the comparison. With no iron on the
| furnace yards and with practically none
| In the warrant yards (and I say none on
| the furnace yards because the small
amount barely represents the amount nee
essary TO be carried to meet current orders,
including the boken car load lots of differ
~ r,odac on diffarent furnace yards) the
consumers will be deprived in future of
these two sources of supply and will be
required to depend upon the daily make
of the furnaces. With these two sources
of supply cut off and with the foreign trade
Swinging up, and there being practically
no iron on the yards of large consumers,
as is evidenced day by day by the urgency
of their requests for shipment, the posi-
ton of the market is, in my judgement,
one of great inherent strength and there
is nothing that can affect 1t unfavoralbly
except a tremendous falling off in con-
sumption, and see at present no evidence
of that.
Decline in Stock
The stocks of iron inI-he warrant yards
on the other side have continued to de-
cline. the decline the current year to date
being q, 900 tons. So There Is not only no
accumulation of stock anywhere, but
general decline in stocks has taken place
all over the world, and has continued each
month of the current year up to and In
Guiding last month for which we have any
report
1.-The rolling mills are hungry and
Overwhelmingly aggressive about shipments
ON their orders, and such is also the case
with basic consumers. None Of the SOUTH
ern consumers have any stocks. These
are the facts, and, as before stated, they
are convincing to me of the inherent
strength of the market. If there was
demand on the south for 10000 tons of new
orders for shipment over the next four or
five months, there is no one concern that
could take the order, nor do ] believe that
there are any three or -four of them VINO
4o1,a A. avan u n should ~ fairly