The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-06

ever, where sales were made in January
at % to 50 cents below the $3.50 basis for
Northern No iron. that price is now
more generally asked.
Apart from the way in which railroad
consumption of steel goes on, the promi-
nent feature is the prodigious demand for
bars. Leading buyers are In many cases
Using up twice che quantities they former
" averaged.
Reports of car orders involve much
repetition. With the PENNSYLVANIA In
aairing for so on which bids are in, the
total pending for which early orders are
expected is 40o0o.
An advance Of 50 a ton has been made
In steel boiler tubes but no change is an
nounced in iron.
Cleveland, February 5.-(Special THE
Iron Trade Review tomorrow will say:
Another remarkable chapter in the story
of record breaking production of pig iron
was added by January when the fur
naces making coke and anthracite pig iron
produced 2,790.1S0 TONS The record for
the month total made in December, 1909,
WAS broken in October of last year, again
IN December and once more in January,
when the output exceeded by that of De-
oember by PISS tons.
The merchant furnaces made gain of
24,l43 tons, while the steel works furnaces
sustained a loss of 1o06S tons. The loss
was due to furnaces being compelled TO
go ont of blast for repairs and not in any
case to the desire of the owners to cur
down production. The average daily out
put of 900o3 tons in January is gain IF
413 tons over December. and marks the
first time in the history of the American
iron industry. in which an average oue-
put of $4,000 tons day was maintained
throughout a month.
Buying of finished products since the
first of the year has held up much better
than present indications of lighter activl-
ty in the market suggest.
The Steel corporations new bookings in
January fell short of shipments by only
a modest degree and the untitled tonnage
to be announced next week will show a
loss of less than 100, 600 tons. Shipments
continued heavy last month. and some
good sized buying in various lines is main
tanned. Operations of the Steel corpora
tien are on high plane. The Illinois
Steel company last month broke all rec
ords in its open hearth ingot production by
almost 10000 tons. Its January output
was about 100000 tons.
Softness in the jig iron market is ex-
tending. Sales have been made in the
Chicago district at a concession of 50 cents
under recent prices and limited tonnage
have been sold in the valley at $1725 fur
mace, decline of % cents In the east ex-
treme dullness prevails. The Tennessee
Coal, Iron and Railroad company has
made further sales aggregating several
thousand tons of southern pig iron for
shipment to Genoa and Trieste.
Active buying by railroads continues.
The great northern has placed 1900 tons
of rails additional with the Illinois Steel
company. making its recent order about
10000 tons. The Illinois Steel company has
taken 1000 tons for the Waterloo and Ce-
dar Rapids, and the Carnegie Steel COM
pany 5000 tons for the Western Maryland.
The northwestern roads continue to nego-
tiate for rails, but find difficulty In get
ting the deliveries desired. Some large
tonnages will possibly soon be placed by
south American interests An advance IN
steel nipe prices is expected at far distant
date on account of the present high prices
of sckelp from which the pipe IS mace
The prices of steel boiler tubes have been
advanced SO per ton. Quotations on IRON
tubular goods nave not been changed