Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-16
REVIEW or
IRON MARKET
Advances Are Being Made at
a Rapid Rate.
THE PACE is TOO FAST
And the Reaction Must Sur ely Come
1t IS a Questions of Getting
the Material.
THE PACE is TOO FAST

New York. March 16.-The Iron Age, in
Its review Of trade conditions says: In
all the leading distributing centers the
iron and steel interests are excited and
advances are being made with bevilder-
ing rapidity. The demand keeps up sur
prisingly We'll and for prompt and early
delivery ii is not a question of price, but
simply a matter Of obtaining the ma
terial. Still indications are cropping up
that the pace is too fast and instances
have come to our notice repeatedly of
late of work which is being delayed or
postponed because prices are said to be
too high. Such cases are isolated still
and do not cut any figure when compared
with the urgency of the demand from
many quarters. 4 further sharp advance
has been made in pig iron all along the
line, including several grades. In the GEN.
trail west some large blocks Of Bessemer
pig may be offered by the association at
an early date. In the east there have
been large sales of low PHOSPHORUS iron
and of basic pig. Steel has rushed up to
$3.50 to $26 in the east and close to the
same fgures in the central west, but the
transactions are not of great magnitude.
Prices of finished material have been
sharply advanced. Sheets. bars, pipe.
structural material and wire and wire
nails are higher and yet the market is
kept clear. The fact is that large orders
keep cropping up for product of all kinds.
In one Gay a tidG"cter ~shinyard had in
quiries for II large II could
not accept 2 single one.
occasionally facts come to the surface,
x,-1 Sass - -
that we are cutting off our export trade
completely. Among these we may note
the sale Of about $500 tons Of merchant
pipe by the National Tubc Works to South
Africa or the contract taken by the
Pennsylvania Steel for the
great Grogtiek viadlct in Burmah, which
is to be over three feet high and will call
for about 5000 tons of material.
AS against this we note that this week
an order for about 5000 tons of c~astiron
pip for Buenos Ayres was lost by the
American bidders, an English concern
taking the order at II cents per ton less
than the American bid.
In consolidation matters little that is
new has cropped UP. It is understood
that the option to take the ore of the
Oliver interest on q sliding scale arrange
ment continues open to the National
Steel company until the return of H.. w.
Oliver from the Antilles. The National
Steel company has acquired the Thomas
furnace at Niles and is negotiating for
other furnaces. It looks as though the
close relations necessary between tin
plate manufacturers and sheet mills will
be established. options on the plants are
now being obtained and an organization
may be perfected in a few weeks. The
reports of the sale of the Ashland plant
to the American Steel and Wire company
are decidedly premature, to put it mildly.
1t is understood that an option has been
ordered on the splendid plant of the
Riverside works of Wheeling by those
who are working on the pipe conso!ida-
ton. The organization of the cast pipe
consolidation is to be effected this week,