The age-herald., 1899-08-16
FOR DELIVERY 12 MONTHS AHEAD
Booking 1900 Orders for Pig
 Iron.
AND AT ADVANCED PRICES
Tennessee Company Signs Contract for { 2S0,0O0 Tons, Part of Which is ] to Be Delivered Durin the l n Latter Half of 1900

l The big iron furnaces of the Birming- ham district are now beginning to sell pig iron for delivery during the last six months of 1900. just twelve months ahead. The Tennessee company on the first two days of this week have sold, 1t is said, about 28,O00 tons of iron-all of it to one concern. A portion of this order is to be delivered during the first half of next year, and the remainder during the last six months
 It is said this iron was sold for a 25-cent advance on the prices that have recently been charged for next year delivery Just what the old prices have been is a matter of conjecture, they vary among the dif- ferent companies, and according to the time of delivery. The big order above re- ferred to- however. was for No. iron and under, and brought about s15.25 or $l5.50 per ton.
 When the companies get to selling iron a year ahead at such prices as these there is every assurance that the demand will not begin to slacken and the prices to drop for some time to come.
 The highest grades of Birmingham iron, No. foundry, is selling for immediate de- livery at $165o per ton. though for future delivery the price is less than that
 s.s.s. n.. tns Yards clean
 The great demand for pig iron is prac- ticaly sweeping all of the furnace and warrant yards of the country clean of their stocks, and soon there will be nothing at all in the yards except grass. In the warrant yards of the whole country there was on the first of this month only 26,7O0 tons of iron 26,6O0 of which was in Alabama. There are only two other states that have any iron at all in their warrant yards Colorado with 1000 and New York with 100 tons. Three hundred tons of the Alabama stock was shipped from this city yesterday to Ohio.
 The total amount of all grades of iron in the furnace yards of Alabama and Geor- gia at ule first of August was only 9,O74 tons. so that 1t will be seen that babama s total stocks, in warrant and furnace yards, is less than S4.000 tons. At tho beginning of tts year Alabama and Georgia had I 12G,246 tons in their furnace yards. Output of Furnaces | It is interesting to note how the furnaces | are WorklnS uur1nS tneSe times when the demand for iron is so great. During July | there were twenty-one furnaces in Alabama and Georgia in blast, and in that month l their combined output averaged 20, 126 tons | per week, which is an average of nearly l37 tons day for each of the furnaces. 1T his shows nice improvement over June, when the average output was about 133 tohs daily. The output will continue to in- crease, it Is said, as the new laborers. which it has been necessary to put to work, become more accustomed to their work. The twenty-one furnaces in blast had 7.094 tons of iron in stock at the end of July.
 During that month there were nineteen furnaces out of blast Tn Alabama and Geor- gia. of which the combined weekly capac- ity Is supposed to be about 1,6SO tons. They had on hand as stock 1880 tons. During July there were in the United States IA iron furnaces in blast, and there we're 42 that were idle. The combined out put of the furnaces in blast averaged 229,- '0e2 tons per week, which is on an avera ge of 1Ss tons output per day