Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-31
HIGHER
 COPPER MARKET
Cash Supplies Long Ago Exhausted and Producers Are Not Making Any Con tract Further Ahead than Four or Five Months, Says Walker.

George l.. Walker in his copper let. ter dated January 25, says regarding
 the copper metal market:
 Copper continues in strong demand at 20 to 26 cents per pound. Lake and electrolytic are being sold for delivery as far ahead as May and June at 25 cents. There are inquiries for Septem- Der copper, but producers are refusing to make contracts further ahead than four to five months. Consumers find il practically impossible to secure lots of copper Tor immediate delivery, as the cash supplies were long ago exhausted. This condition of things seems to have created the demand for far advance de. livery contracts. Manufacturers who are requested to give figures on manu. Itaetured goods deliverable late in the year are unwilling to take chances on the prlce of copper, and as they are unable to ind producers who will sell tor August and September delivery they are obliged to fight shy of such business.
 The fact should be appreciated more generally that copper is not sold at ran dom m the open market, as some other commodities are. Every producer and selling agent has his particular custom CTS whom he supplies year in and year out with given grade of copper from a certain mine or refinery, and the little copper that is dealt in in the open market represents the excess either of supply or demand. The custom of buy ing copper for two to four mouths ad. vance account is the 0utgrowth of the contract system in manufactured com. maditles. street railway company. for instance, orders l,00O, ,000 pounds of copper wire and a ear builder 2,OOO, 900 pounds of brass trimmings for delivery four ar five months hence. The manu. facturer who takes these contracts, if he wishes to eliminate the speculative feature, must immediately buy his cop per for delivery during the month in which he desires to begin using it. He thus protects himself as to the cost of raw material.
 The speculative market in London has been used for two generations as a pro. lection, or hedge, by foreign manufac- turers of copper wares. When a con sumer made a contract to deliver cop per goods several months in advance, he would protect himself in the copper market either by buying his refined metal at the current price and selling "G. NJ. B. .'s' short; or through the purchase of ''G NJ. B. 8. !" if no refined copper were available at satisfactory price, provided he feared an advance. He thus protected himself against finan- cial loss in the event of either an ad vance or decline in metal prices of late years there have been such wide variations between the prices of "G. M B. and refined copper that the greater number of manufacturers have diseon tinued the practice referred t-.
 The leading authorities in the copper trade freely express the belief that the average price of copper this year will be close to 25 cents The production of the first half of the year is nearly all sold at about 9 cents. and as the last half of the year will be entered upon without any surplus supplies of metal in existence, it is safe to predict that there will be no weakening in market eondi tiQns until very near the end of the year, if then. There never was pre- vious time in the history of the trade when the outlook for the metal market was as rosy as it is at present