The age-herald., 1900-07-23
THE IRON MARKET
 IS STEADYING A Number of Sales of Car Load
 Lots Reported. LOCAL STOCKS INCREASING Consumers Seem to be Waiting for Still Lower Prices Before Laying in Stocks-Activity Among the
 Local Foundries
LOCAL STOCKS INCREASING

The iron market seems to have steadied somewhat in the past week or two, but there is still an absence of any considera- ble demand for that metal. Some activity was reported in the demand for southern iron at Cincinnati the middle of last week and several sales of car load lots on basis of s14 for No. 2 foundry at Birming- ham are said to have been made. There seems an evident disposition among con- sumers to wait until iron reaches rock bottom prices before purchasing, or at least to wait until they are compelled to replenish depleted stocks. Some activity was reported among the local foundries last week, due to the receipt of several new orders. The tendency among the buyers seems to be to hold off till the very last minute before making contracts, in the hope that prices, which have been falling for the past six weeks, will go still lower.
 On account of this lack of demand stocks on the furnace yards in Alabama, as well increasing at rapid rate. The increase in Alabama and Georgia during the month of June was over 21, 900 tons, and from Janu- diy tO Juiy l WdS fi,OfO lOHSt ol Wuici 42,244 tons were coke iron, and 4,S32 tons charcoal iron. The stock of each on the furnace yards in the two states on July 1 was 5S,937 tons of coke iron, and 6163 tons of charcoal The number and weekly ca pacity of the furnaces in blast in Ala bama and Georgia at the beginning and the middle of the year were as follows: Janu- ary 1, number of furnaces in blast, coke, 22 weekly capacity, 17S69 tons. Charcoal, 6, weekly capacity, 1,S0S tons. Total, num- Der in blast 23; weekly capacity 19,6T tons. Thus it will be seen that more than one- fourth of the entire output of the furnaces in the two states remained on the yards at the end of the month.
 Sale of Export Iron
 The Sloss-Shefield Steel and Iron Com pany is said to have sold about 5000 tons of iron for export last week. Just at pres ent more activity is manifested in the ex- port business than in the domestic but it is not of sufficient magnitude to keep down the rapidly accommodating stocks.
 Rogers, Brown and Company, in their market report for last week, dated Satur- day, July 21 says:
 Last autumn the prices on pig iron rose quite rapidly and reached a high altitude as compared with figures the trade had been familiar with so long, but prices steel and iron products, especially in steel. rose to points high above any relative value with Bessemer foundry and mill pig iron or base metals. The extreme height to which these manufactured products rose, gave them greater fall to normal planes, and the descent has been very rapid indeed. The decline has come with such force as to carry the figures beneath the surface of legitimate levels. From figures on bars, plates and sheets said to have been offered this week, the dead level prices of two years ago are discounted.
 Pig iron not having risen to the fanci- ful flight of the finished material has not suffered the same heavy fall, but the de- cline has been sufficiently great to dis courage pig iron manufacturers, many of whom are arranging to blow out and not sell at loss, which must entail, with cost o fore, transportation and labor what they are.
 "While some indeed many, consumers are still we'll supplied with iron, the great majority of them are buying for immediate requirements only and postponing contract ing for liberal quantities until, in their judgment, the bottom has been reached. There is a possibility we are there new All things considered, prices current may be regarded as reasonably normal.
 Sma Lot Sales
 "The transactions of the week compre- hend the sales of very many small lots and carloads, at figures represented below.
 "We quote for cash f. O. b. Cincinnati: Southern Coke, No. Foundry. .$18 25@$1S 50 Southern Coke, No. Foundry. 1T 250p II 50 Southern Coke, No. 3 Foundry. Is 250 16 50 Southern Coke, No. A.. ... ..... 15 75GD 16 % Southern Coke, Gray Forge. :. 15 251 15 50 Southern Coke, No. Soft...... IS 25GD IS 50 Southern Coke, Mo- 2, Soft ..... F 256D F 50 Lake Superior Coke, No. 1...... IS 006D IS 50 Lake Superior Coke, No. 2...... + 00GD F 50 Hanging Rock Charcoal, No. l.. 2 500 23 50 Jackson Co. Silvery, No. 1...... g 00lD 23 % Standard George Car Wheel..... g 256p 24 25 Hinkle L. s. Charcoal. =. .... 23 500 4 %
 Conservative men set apart the summer for the readjustment of the iron market and the conditions of manufacturing iron. The summer is not gone, as the records of