The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-28
IRON MARKET HAS AN UNSTEADY WEEK Situation Unusual on Ac-
 count of Wild RumOrs PRICES UNDER STRAIN Lowest Prices Named Are Not Gen
 eral and Many Buyers Find
 They Cannot Place Business
 At the Figures

New York. September 27.-The Iron Ag' will say tomorrow:
 "rhe air has been so charged with dis turbing rumors. accompanied by rapiC declines in the Steel corporation's $. seeuri | ties that it may take a week or longer to give any clear view of the trade sit uation.
 l "The statement of the Steel corpora tion. given out shows 4,5oo0oo tons on its books, including 1000 tons of inter-com- pany business. Showing 3,571,OW tons of orders indicates decline of 125,eN tons from the amount reported for septem- Der l.
 All market reports indicate that fin- 1 ished steel prices have been under more strain and in some cases are N to s2 a ton lower. But the lowest prices named are not general and a good many buyers find that they cannot place business at these figures. This unevenness has caused much confusion
 The appearance of a S1,00O ton Bessemer rail inquiry from the Norfolk and Vest ern railroad for 1912 is encouraging It is possible that this and other lines will permit the rolling of some Of their 1912 rails this year.
 "A new card of discounts on merchant pipe, to be issued by the National Tube company, October ?, will show reduc- tion of g a ton on black and a greater l reduction on galvanized pipe. "A more aggressive attitude on struc- tural shapes has been taken by some mills and 127la has been reached on large | business in the Pittsburg district while Chicago reports business taken at the | equivalent of 1.25e Pittsburg. Plate mills are drifting into quieter conditions Orders from car and locomo- tive works are dwindling and the latter in particular are facing lean winter.
 Tn the Pttsburg district prices on open hearth billets and sheet bars have de- clined further, and as low as s19 and s1e.50 respectively are reported
 Pig iron markets are even quieter' buyers having evidently been driven off by recent weakness in this years prices and the failure of furnaces to establish advances for next year."
 Cleveland, Ohio. September 27.-(Spe- cial )-The Iron Trade Review tomor- row will say: The weakness of the steel stocks and the continued irregular
 
 have had a tendency to restrict buying to imperative needs of consumers and the volume of business which has been received under such unfavorabl con ditions show that stocks in hands oi consumers are low and that with only a slight change of general condition, buying would show very comfortable increase.
 In the big iron market the most en- oorir da1-R innnirgF of the Pennsylvania railroad for 141,000 tons of various grades for delivery at it5 Altoona foundries. This is the lar gest inquiry that has been sent out by this company for several years. Cast iron pipe companies have been the chief buyers in eastern territory. The Della ware River company has purchased 4000 Chs and it is estimated that re- cent purchases by Virginia companies aggregated 10000 tons. At least one Ohio furnace is willing to sell basic at s12.50 furnace
 Some eastern railroads which have made a practice of buying in the fall are looking into rail requirements for next year. The C. B. and Q. has award ed its office building, Chicago, requir- ing 6490 tons, to the American Bridge company. The Louisville and Nashville has awarded 800 steel underframes for box cars to the Pressed Steel Car com pany and the same number to the Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing com pany. The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg is inqtAring for HOO steel un- derframes, which will require 5500 tons of steel.
 The Lehigh Valley has awarded six all steel ear floats to eastern ship yards, about 2500 tons of steel being required. The new passing card will be- come effective October 2. making re- auctions of g ton on black steel pipe and from S6 to s145 ton on galvan- ized pipe