The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-16
STATES MINERALS
PIG IRON MANUFACTURERS HusH-
 ED BY ORDER.
Very Little of Product is stored in Furnace Yards and Demand Seems in Increase of Pro-
 dueffon.

orders being booked for delivery dur Ing the last three m onths of the year The statement is made by one of the larger producers of iron that the sales day in and day out recently have yis- gregated more than the production.
 Iron quotations are holding firm at s135o per ton, No. foundry. The home consumption Is large. the needs of these consumers having been pro- vided for some time back. Consumers Tn other districts have been buying in small lots ranging from car lot to 200 and 300 tons, indicating that inl- mediate needs are being protected and at the same time Keeping in touch with the market.
 The progress being made in the re- pairing of furnaces is held back by the scarcity of labor. Notwithstand- ing that there Is a healthy importa- ton of foreign labor to the Hirming- ham district and this labor is being given employment as soon as 1t is re- ceived, much complaint is still heard as to the shortage of hands.
 Very little of the new labor being brought to the industrial section of Alabama Is being sent into the mines. that work being we'll supplied now with hands. No little of the labor Is being used around the furnaces and in ore mines. Every effort is being made to complete the furnace repairing. It is not doubted but that an Increased Iron output can well be taken care of. There is no accumulated iron fin this district, which fact Is fairly well known by the consumers who look to Alabama for their supplies. What iit- tie Iron storad on furnace yards be- longs to some one and awaits instruc- tions as to shipping.
 A IA A~r A iron manufacturers are for early de- livery, in many instances the small lot purchasers demanding that imme- diate delivery be made. The railroads announce a little better shipment of pig iron.
 The pudding departments at the rolling mills in the Birmingham dis trict will make preparations tomorrow looking to being started up again af- ter a fortnight rest during which time there were some needed repairs made. The finishing departments in the mills will probably start up towards the lat ter part Of the month Or when the muck iron has accumulated some. The mills in this district including Besse- mer, the city and Gate City, give en1- ployment to more than fifteen hundred skilled laborers.
 Tho Boundaries and machine shops In this section report hne prospects and 1t is not believed there will be any cessation of operations at the different works. The cast iron pipe manufac- turers have orders in hand or in sight which are going to Acep them busy for the balance of the year and at the same time will force them to watch their iron supplies.
 The soil pipe manufacturers report steady demand and the three plants at work on that class of goods are giving steady employment to a good ly number of men. The production of east Iron pipe in Alabama has increas- ed in the past two months. two new plants starting up, one in North Bir- mingham and the other at Shefie1d. Strong prices have prevailed for cast iron pipe for some time. The United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company, one of the largest pipe man companies In the country, with plants at Anniston. Bessemer. and other places in the South has been showing good earnings for the past two years. Thia company has been bidding lately on some of the largest kind of orders for cast iron pipe.
 Alabama steel is still making its mark The steel rail sales now aggre- gate the probable production at the Bnsley mills of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company through the balance of this year and for almost the entire twelve months of 1907. Gen. eral Sales Agent Burr Is not making public any figures as to specific rules but a number of Northern railroads, so 1t is learned, are anxious to use South ern open hearth steel rails and were 1t possible to get delivery in anything like reasonable time might place some In hn ANl osa the new steel mill to be erected at Ensley by the Tennessee Company will be pushed. The material and machin. cry for the new plant will begin ar- riving shortly, before the excavations for the foundations have been compile ted
 Many contracts have been let for the necessary material for the big plant When completed employment will be given in the new steel plant to four pr five hundred men, the larger portion of them to be skilled laborers. In the work two hundred and more men will be given employment. It is believed the big plant can be com pleted within fifteen months. The high officials of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company assert that in- tentions are to more than double the present production of steel in this dis trict and therefore everything possible was to be done to get the new plant up at the earliest possible moment
 The Coal Situation.
 There is still much activity in the goal fields in Alabama and indications point to the greatest development this 'all ever before thought Of Five com nercial coal operators have failed as yet to sign contracts with the union miners. but at least one of these con- ,erns announce that during the com- ng week the contracts will be signed md work resumed at the mines which have been Idle since July 1st Not nore than half a dozen mines are Idle low on account of no contract with un- ons or for other causes. The union miners appear to be in good frame ,f mind, the contracts with the com nercial operators being signed up well md the operators being anxious for he miners to get In as much time as hey possibly can, because of the great 1eed for the coal. The Alabama pro- iuct is in strong demand. notwith- standing the season of the year.
 The Stout's Mountain Coal Company s still shipping good quantity of it's output to Mexico via Pensacola over he Louisville and Nashville Railroad rom this territory and then from Pen acola by boat to Vera Cruz. This coal tands the hard travel we'll and is very Ieceptable in Mexico by the railroads md other large consumers.
 As to development in the Alabama oal fields 1t is stated that as soon as he Louisville and Nashville Railroad ompletes the extension of the Ala- anna Mineral Railroad into walker ounty on it's Mineral Springs branch here will be dozen and more mines pened and coal shipment on very ln nil hA aAhaAAA