The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-10-11
SAY COPPER IS
GOING HIGHER
Decrease of Consumers Stocks
Cuts a Figure, Experts
Contend.
RATED INVISIBLE SUPPLY
BUYING MOVEMENT LAST OF THE
YEAR is PREDICTED.

! While Wall street has been bearish on
the copper stocks over the last several
weeks, it is remarkable that in the face
of this, conservative selling agencies and
! producers report an improvement in the
local metal situation, says the Wall Street
Journal. This Improvement is confined
more to inquiries and the SOld-Out con-
ditiOn of consumers than to large sales
of the metal and advancing prices.
Several OF the large consumers admit
| that they have been buying copper from
| hand to mouth and their stocks are COM
paratively low. This means consumers
/ have felt that as a result of large stocks
| Of copper and increased production. buy
ing for delivery in the far future was not
/ necessary. Whether they will change
| their opinion between now and the first
of the year remains to be seen.
One of the recognized experts Of the
| country, who is bearish on the metal for
! the present, predicts a pronounced buy
/ ing movement the latter part of this year
| or early next year He said:
/ 1T would not surprise me in the least if
/ there was a repetition of the current up
ward movement in iron and steel in the
| copper metal market within the next three
! or four months. 1 know that consum-
/ eTs are carrying very little copper, and
when they begin to lay in stocks for de-
| livery in the first half of next year, the
/ metal is bound to advance in price. 1t
4 may be repetition on smaller scale
/ Of the movement in copper in 1906. Nat
4 uraIly, 25-cent copper is not anticipated
owing to heavy production and the large
American and European stocks. How
ever, 1 would not be in the least sur
| prlsed to see eleCtrOlytic copper selling
considerably above 10 cents pound next
/ January. There is no getting around the
! Iact that consumption is gradually get
/ ting near production. When consumption
does equal production, an enhancement in
copper prices cannot be prevented We
are producing more copper than ever be-
fore in history, but at the same time
| believe that this country is consuming as
much if not more than ever before. With
steel and other branches of business NOV
ing, it would be foolhardy to predict sta
| tlonary or reactionary conditions in cop
per"
Visible Supply MisIeads.
A large copper mine owner, who has
Just returned from Europe, said: 1.-THE
people seem to take it for granted that
increased stocks of copper furnish them
with good barometer of metal cOndi-
IONS take contrary view. As an
example, while the supply of copper in
Europe has been increasing, the invis-
lble supply, or supply in the hands of
consumers. has been decreasing. This
IS due largely to the fact that consum-
ers have not been buying copper in large
quantities, the most of the buying being
confined to spectators.
The same conditions have prevailed in
TINS country over the last two months
Consumers are not carrying the stocks
They have been of the opinion that there
was little likelihood of a sharp advance
III copper stocks on account of large
production and surplus stocks. Orders for
the products Of consumers have been in
creaslng and it will not be long before
they come to a realization that they must
foTtify themselves by laying in future
supplies of the metal. Stocks will then
be shifted from the hands of selling agen-
cIeS and producers to those of consum-
ers, and copper prices will advance in
sympathy with this change in cOndf-
tons"