The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-26
PIC IRON MARKET
T0vs PRICES SEEMED TO RI
 REACHED.
Snot proauef selling As High As Se4 Per Ton. With Little To
 Be Had In the District.


 Birmingham, Nov 25--(Speciall-l The topnotch prices In the DIE iron mar ket in Alabama appear 70 nave been reached but there are no inolcations oI a reaction in the near future. spot iron has been selling at s2S and SPA per ton. with very little to be had
 Orders have been booked for delivery of iron during the latter part or the first quarter of the coming year as the furnace companies give signs of having sold about as much iron as they care to- for delivery during the hrst quarter. Sales for the second quarter have been lively, too. and from SlTSo to SIS has been the price for No. foundry.
 A few sales have been made for de- livery during the last half of the com ing year, and it Is given out that there has not been much iron sold under S1o per ton, delivery at any time next year
 The railroad car shortage Is being l complained of in no quiet terms. Even with the railroad lines which have plenty of cars there appears 10 pc congestion on account of lact Of loco nooffive power The Louisville anG Nashville Railroad is in the best condi- ton of all the railroads in the Birming- ham district, handling the coal, coke, iron and steel products.
 The Louisville and Nashville Railroad
  their mineral branches and used them in hauling the freight off the main line hundreds of cars heavily ladened being moved southward as well as | northward, o1 the South and North | division. In this manner the week VIII hexin with better conditions. However. | If ia expected that by Wednesday or l Thursday of the week the conditions will be the same as they were this week.
 On the lines which have but few cars with which to handle the products ana 1 n shortage of locomotive power. the I conditions are quite unpleasant to the l manufacturers. The production Of ron in the Birmingham district continues l steady, to say the least
 | A small furnace, with datl. capac- 1 ity of between eighty and 100 tons or | iron, has been blown in and IS now ] nauufacturtng iron The significance 1 of this furnace going in blast is con
 sinerable when It Is known that tns as l has 10 purchase all of its raw material | supply for iron making and then has l trouble in having 1t delivered because ! of its location in the city limits.
 l The furnace is owned by the William | son Iron Company and has never been operated save when irep prices were 1 above a fair average. With spot Iron l selling above s22 and even $25 per | ton. No ?. foundry this little furnace e
 Han c6ppfEe opsEs'gb believe M that conditions viii warrant an operation for many months
 The regular iron companies fin the Birmingham district do not appear 10 bein position to increase their output l nI,rh Tine weather has been so very | nleasant and to the liking for out door | work. that the bins at furnaces nave
 been kept quite full; considesiring 'he | miserable transportation facilltles. | Furnace comranies In the Birmlng- . ham district are exerting every efort 10 deliver iron on orders accepted some time since. There is much delay on olo business and 1t Is being charged to the | Door railroad service. There ls' now l aver. hut little accumulation, which
 goes to show that the iron highways are about keeping up with the make . If is believed that before the end or tbe coming month the furnace com panies who sold their product exten- siveIy will have delivered all the low | priced iron.
 Some figuring is now being made as I to the aggregate business done for the | wear inst about to come to close. 1n-
 dications are that every company whicf
 has not had any extraordinary expense
 and there cannot be many, have hae larger profits this year than the pre- 1 vious year. One. of the larger compa- 1 nies in this district saw fit to sell iror
 
 learned there was but one company.
 There was good judgment shown ir
 this district in the way iron was held
 for profitable prices and while the pres
 ent high prices were not looked Tor
 still better prices than those which prevailed in June and July were ex- | pected and the expectation was real I ized. The cost of making iron has been 1 high in Alabama, it cannot be denied, but the advance in prices has gone 1 above the advance in the cost of the product The strike of the union coal ! miners is a thing of the past, but the scarcity of labor is still noted but IS | not having great effect on the cost of lnip iron. There are other reasons, however, for the additional cost of iron | making. High prices overshadow the cost of production considerably.
 | There will be no necessity If cur tailment in the operation of indus 1 tries producing pig iron in this district for some time to come
 | In ateeI circles there is nothing fur ther to report than that the probable } output for months to come has been
 sold and that good prices were oD- tained for the output. The steel plants at Gadsden and Ensley. in this State,
 are losing no time and every ton ol the product is being handled just as
 quickly as 1t is ready for the cars. Conditions in finished iron and steel are strengthening up also and 1t is believed that here will be a similar report com
 ing from tn emachine shops and found ries throughout the district ere long. 1. The railroads will have no reasons
 for a hold-up for the holidays. As far as can be learned every effort is to be made to have steady operation through the holiday period. save. prOb-
 ably, for 8 day or two on Christmas
 and New Year days. The railroad of-
 ficiaIs in this district state that they
 are doing everything in their power
 to give relief to the situation in the
 iron and steel manufacturing center' but they are just human and that Is | all.
 Rumors are again current in refer ence to the merging of more companies than the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail-
 road Company with the Republic Iron
 and Steel Company The plan for the l merging of the two companies named were made public during the past week the stock to be dealt out among the . l I, oR gNo fy, fba tx4yo fs,~