Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-12
THERON MARKET
Trouble In Getting Coke to
the Furnaces.
IS A SCARCITY OF CARS
Wire Trade is Picking Up and We
Are Now Exporting Quantities to
Germany--The Demand for Struct-
ural Material and Steel Billets.

New York, Oct. 12.-Discussing the sit
uation in the iron and metal trades the
IRON Age will to-day say: Our monthly
blast furnace report shows that the week.
ly capacity Of the coke and anthracite
furnaces on Oct. /. had gone up to 272,-
42s gross tons, or 10. 75S tons above the
september figure. In other words, the
preparations for larger production are
telling. In the south a number of small
plants will drop in from month to month,
but they do not count for much. Fur
mace stocks have declined further, thus
showing that consumption is still crowd
ing the output.
A very serious feature is the great
scarcity Of cars which affects the sup
ply of coke. One large plant of three
furnaces has been forced to bank three
times in one month because coke snip
ments We're delayed-and this in the face
Of an effort made for months to ccumu
late stock for just such emergencies.
Every department affecting the great IN
dustry of the central west is under such
tension that any extra strain in any dl-
rection causes a rupture which disorgan-
ICES everything. The fear OF a snort
zee of ore, of troubles over coke supply
ard of any possible other contingencies
q fiact;ng peculiar and maximum OF pGs
nrod,,ction T. the one factor which doml-
mates trade. IN
ON the other hand, Of couls-. the IN
c.casing production ought 10 oe leas
surfing. With the winter before u.s.
br inging a lessened .ne n
pansion in the output ought TO ehaplE -
furnaces to catch up on deliveries wing
no makers of raw iron are still behlno
he consumption, it looks as though ~
some lines of finished iron ana steer tne
mills are looking for some tohnaSt ~,
! the first half Of 1900. Cases OF inns KIM
are cropping up ana may nay o'i ;s "a
feet in modifying values. Mach Is De
ing said about the export trade. ne
statistics of shipments w to n lnclud-
inc August are referred to as proving
that that outlet is still running full. But
! after all that is really like watching the
mill race without Keeping ali eye VI 'ie
headWaters.
MANY lines of orders have been scare
! for months and a sharp drop in ship
ments is coming. 1T is Well. however, &c
make some exceptions. In the wire IN
dustry. in which the Germans are oui
prir cipal competitors, export SAFES nav
been heavy in spite of successive ad-
Nances aggregating since early August
about so per ton. The reason IS tEa'
the Germans are a good deal worse on
than we are in the matter of scarcity OF
raw material and we are profiting there
by,
AS an indication of the pressure in tht
wiz trade. we may mention that the
leading interest has ordered 10000 addl
tional blocks. In structural materia
W. are aided by the fact that our de
signs, while amply large to meet thu
strains are lighter than those of othe
countries. Then. of course, there is tn
matter of time of delivery, of which w
have advantages even now in certai!
lines. But to expect that we can main
tain our rate of tonnage in the eS2or
trade at present prices for the next 81.
or nine months shows a misrepresentation
of the situation. The rail makers ar
getting good prices and in some ease
the requirements are UNEXPECTEDLY large
1t is probable that a further advance il
prices will take place at an early date
In steel the scarcity for prompt deliver
continues unahated. AS much as 81
and $50 per ton has been paid for roun,
lots of open hearth steel billets.