The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-31
PIC IRON MARKET
MANUFACTURER LOOK FOR BUY
 ING TO RESUME.
Nothing But Business For Delivery During Last Haif of Coming Yeur At High Price Will He
 Considered.

last haIf or the coming year, ana the quotations are still high. No. Foun- ,dry being quoted for the third quarter above SIS per ton, and for the fourth quarter between s17.5O and sls50 per ton.
 It is announced, that when the buy ing does start up there will be but ltt-
 tie iron sold for delivery at any time next year under SIS per ton. The year will close with more pig iron on the furnace yards than has been seen here in three years, but, as stated before, this Is accountable for In the fact that the railroads have been unable to han-
 dle the product and the accumulation
 has been steady for the past three and a half months. The advance in freight
 rates on iron and kindred goods goes into effect on February 1.
 It has hot yet been settled whether Ethe railroads will stand for the loss incident to not being able to hand9 the iron promptly and caused an accumu- lation, which will shortly figure up over fifty thousand tons. 1t Is impossi- ble, at the present capacity of traffic, l to begin to move off ii great amount of l the iron on the yards. Say that one half of the accumulated iron is moved off the twenty-five cents per ton ad- vance alone will mean more than &C., 250. When 1t Is taken into consld- ovation that the Alabama furnace com panies at the best have to compete with some very strong competitors, It Is be- 1 lieved that every advantage should De given to the Southern producers, and for that reason a protest is being made 10 tho advance going into effect oh the iron that was allowed to accumulate
 because the railroads were unable to
 move 1t out promptly.
 Consumers are clamoring for their iron. and there Is hut little relief In sight on the turn of the year. In the raw material field there is some hope in the fact that the Southern Railway. which operates extensively hi the coal fields, has divided up their division con- siderabIv. and three superintendents are covering territory that hereto fore one man had to do the work This. 1t Is believed, may have some effect In better service.
 The announcement is made that In the near future a large number ot new cars and some more locomotives arc to be delivered to the roads in this section Statisticians at work already on the years output at the mines, quarries' furnaces, mills and other plants, are blaming the railroads for a shortage in the output as compared to the figures that were given out in anticipation as to what the production would be for the year. The iron production for the year will hardly go over what it was last year, If equal to the 1905 output
 In 1905 there were produced 1,6O4,O62 tons of pig iron. During the first six months of this year there were pro duced S3O,O40 tons of iron. The pro- duction, however, fell off heavily in October and the succeeding months or the present year, on account or the uh- certainty of the raw material supplies,
 the railroads being to blame. The first half of 1905 witnessed 143,541 tons of iron manufactured. It Is hardly probable that the figures for the last half of this year will compare favor ably to the figures of the output for Ethe' first half of last year. The coal fnroduction for 1905 went to 11,9OO,152 tons and during the first six months, despite the strike of the union min tsrs there was steady operation at
 mines. It was predicted that the out put would reach 1S,oOO,O0O tons with ease.
 Tn August it was noticed that the railroads could not handle the increas. ing traffic promptly. and a month la ter there was complaint registered against the service. In october, the railroad car shortage became pronounce ed and the complaints were loud and long. The last four months of the wear proved disastrous to the years
 
 production will be at least five hum dred thousand tons under that mark. However, the review of the year in the coal field will snow that much devel- opment has been started on and 1T the railroads wil only begin to handle the product the production in 1907 will go above fourteen million tons,
 There is need for every ton of coal that can be mined and a prominent coal operator is authority for the statement that the demand Is going to hold up strongly through the com ing year. There was no hold-up in the demand during the past year and all the coal that could be mined in the summer found ready demand. The same conditions are looked for the coming year. All depends l. Is stated on the railroad conditions.
 Immediately after January l, the railroad officials announce that they are going to bend every effort to move out pig iron from the Birming- ham district. Consumers are efamor- ing for their product. The manufac- turers announce that they VIII be aole to load cars promptly If the cars are furnished them. If the efforts prom ised are given the belief Is expressed that much iron will be moved out of the Birmingham district In short while The announcement that foreign made iron will arrive shortly at the port of New Orleans for use In the Chicago district does not disturb the Alabama manufacturers much, though they make known their complaint against railroads and assert that If every facility was at hand for handling raw material for the furnaces and the iron after 1t had been manufac- tured that there would not be much need for looking anxiously for the ar rival of the foreign iron.
 No small amount of the iron that Is lying on the furnace yards in this district belongs to consumers in the West and Northwest and daily re- quests are being received here to starr the product out
 Authoritative statement Is made from the furnace companies offices in this district that within the next few days efforts will be made to increase the production of iron materially. The furnaces which had to bank fires on account of the short supplies of ray material during the holiday season are resmming rapidly and in the next week or two furnaces which were blown out for needed repairs will be started up again also. There are no less than five furnaces in the State which are out of commission either for repairs or be- cause of short supplies md as soon as they can be gotten in shape they will, be adding no less than 1,0O0 tons day to the iron production of the district
 At the steel plants splendid reports are made The State will have produc ed this year when the figures have been made up no less than S75,o00 tons of stnel large amount of this pro