The copper era and Morenci leader., 1912-03-08
WALKERS WEEKLY LETTER
Predicts IS Cent Copper in the Near Future With Prospects of Scar city and Higher Range
 Later On.


 city and Higher Range
 Later On.
 Copper is strong and in very good demand. Lake is IA 3-S to IA 1-2 cents and electrolytic is IA 1-4 to IA 3-S cents pound. The foreign buy ing demand continues heavy and ex- ports this month are likely to exceed those of January. Domestic consump- tion evidently is still increasing. There is now good reason to expect an early advance in the price of cop per to 15 cents pound or higher.
 As nearly as can be ascertained the mines operating in the United States and territories produced about 1,050,- 600,000 pounds of copper in 1911, which compares with 1,0S0,159, ,509 pounds in 1910 and 1902, ,951 ,624 pounds in 1909. During the past three years, therefore, there has been gradual decrease in our home cop per production, and the same is prob ably true of the world at large. It is possible that the domestic output this year may aggregate 1,200,000,000 pounds; but it is rather doubtful, as the older and we'll established produc- CTS have failed to show the increase of production since the price of the metal began advancing that was eX- pected. In it's reports the Copper Producers association combines with domestic production, and the total of these last year was 64,513,S3S pounds, of which little over 220,- 00O,000 pounds came from Lake Su- perior and the remainder was made in electrolytic copper or sold as cast ing and pig. Assuming that our pro- duction was 1,O50, 100000 pounds, inn ports must have aggregated 414,513,- S3S pounds. This copper came here from Canada, Mexico, South America, and elsewhere to be refined. The -fi- gures show that 754,902, 233 pounds of copper was exported from this country and 709, 9,611 ,6O5 pounds deliv- cred to domestic consumers.
 On Feb. 1, the worlds surplus stood at 190, ,443 pounds, which is the lowest point it has reached since the Copper Producers association was or ganized the surplus Jan. l 1909, hav- ing been 247,O73,741 pounds. It would appear, therefore, that consumption during the past three years has .ex- ceeded new production to the extent of over 6,OOO,0OO pounds; and during the last 20 months the surplus has decreased 211,0OO,O ,OOO pounds. This would seem to make it clear that the period of great accumulation is past and that we are now on the way tow ard a period of copper scarcity.
 The factors in the situation which encourage belief in a much higher price for the metal are so strong that they cannot be set aside. The con- demand is more firmly es- tabIished than production is. Mining disappointments, labor troubles, floods and fires are likely to interrupt and ducers almost any time, while on the other hand nearly all copper and brass have an excess of ca pacity, so that if anything happened to curtail the output of one plant the demand would be supplied by others in the same line of business.
 As pointed out previously the or ganization of new copper mining com panies has been almost at a stand still for two or three years past. Con- sumption is now increasing at the rate of 2OO,0O0,0OO pounds annually, an amount which is not equalled or ex- ceeded by the production of but one mine in the world, namely, Anaconda. The entire Lake Superior district produces only about 22O,OOO,OO0 pounds, and the output of all the DOT phyry mines combined is still less than 3OO,OOO,OOO pounds.
 The current growth of consump- tion indicates that in the year 1915 the world will be prepared to consume