The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-02
IRON IS BOOMING.
Manufacturers Find 1t ImpOS-
sibIe to Meet the Demand.

New York, March 2.-In its review of
trade conditions, the Iron Age says:
1.-The iron and steel markets are boom
ing and seem now entirely out of the
control of the sellers. Prices have been
jumping dollars per ton and the excite
ment is spreading. AS for the first half
OF the current year it has ceased to be
a question of price and has become
matter of ability to deliver at all.
1T is not so long since that the ma
jority in the trade poohpoohed the pre-
diction that there would be a scarcity
OF pig iron. The fact is admitted now
and the only question is when relief may
be expected. That may be brought
about either by the blowing in of addi
tional furnaces, or by the checking of
the export shipments, or by the falling
off of the home demand. For the first
half of the current year not a single
one of these factors, nor all combined,
will make any impression. Will it come
early or late in the second half? We
believe that in this respect the hopes of
many will be doomed to disappointment.
1t is true that number OF large new
or remode1ed plants in the central west
are to fall into line after the first of
July and that furnaces now idle are
expected to start in soon. 1t is true that
a 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
but of getting raw materials. In the
central west, in the east and in Virginia
the ore problem is the troublesome one,
although relief may come to some
is a matter largely of fuel.
1.-The export business, of course, will
be checked. The tonnage of all kinds
foots up to about SOC, 900 to 900, 900 tons.
For the first six months and for part
of the second half much has been con-
tracted 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
pig iron, the contracts provide that the
metal must go abroad, and switching
may not be possible. Under the circum-
stances it does not look as though
much relief can be expected before Oc-
tober.
LAS an offset, it must be considered
that in many lines the consumers have
been bare of stocks for years without
feeling any inconvenience. They are
having rather novel experiences now
and are endeavoring to guard against
them by accommodating some reserve. In
the aggregate this means a big tonnage.
THE shortage of material has been
emphasized during the week by some
happenings. A leading wire interest has
purchased and is about to close for sew
eral blocks of billets, aggregating about
$4,000 tons for eastern delivery. Two
eastern steel works have purchased a
stock of about $4,000 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 bessemer pig in the central
west will develop in few days. For
earlier shipment the furnaces have sold
as high as $3.50 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 S22, Pittsburg, are starting
every pudding mill still in good condi-
ton and the demand for mill iron has,
therefore, been very heavy.
I'm 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 quantity of southern pig for
the second half
Advances have taken place along the
whole line of finished iron and steel.
Structural material is up.s2 per ton and
bars are 81 higher. Plates, sheets and
skelp are very difficult to buy. at a
sharp advance. Merchant pipe makers
have issued new uniform discounts. Cut
nails are higher and interest centers
on the proposal to gather the eastern
works into a consolidation.
"A sharp advance has taken place in
wire products and in tin plate further
upward movement is imminent"